Secrets of the sands
by tiduwen
Summary: They were halfway back to the castle when an eerily harsh wind picked up, blowing snow into a vortex around them. Harry and Voldemort have reached a slight agreement but now there's something out to get them both...
1. She isnt welcome

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

**NOTE: this is part two of I was almost killed then they came. You don't have to read that one first but if you want more understanding then please do. I wrote this before the sixth book came out so don't be surprised if it's completely different. The person who dies at the end of the half blood prince is still alive in this story and Fudge is still minister of magic. Enjoy it anyway! And remember to review at the end!**

Chapter 1 

_Sands of Egypt blew,_

_Ancient Power stirring,_

_One more evil being for the world to fear,_

_The end is near. Only few can stop it,_

_Joined by the forces of trust,_

_May this evil fall_

This summer had to have been the hottest summer in over a decade. Everything was brown; the grass, the leaves, even some of the people.

Despite the heat, this was also the best summer Harry Potter had had in his entire life. After the novelty of living with Sirius and Lupin had worn off he'd become a normal teenager. Not a normal wizard teenager either, he was simply a normal teenager. He had a girlfriend, a job and he listened to heavy metal music late into the night then woke up late in the morning where he hung around the house wearing nothing but a pair of jeans.

"Wake up, Harry!"

Harry pulled the blankets over his head and gave an objective groan as Lupin opened his blinds, letting in the blazing sunlight.

"Come on, get up, its almost ten!" Lupin came over and yanked the blankets off the bed as Harry emitted a low hiss and covered his eyes.

"Happy birthday" Lupin said pointedly, putting his hands on his hips and staring at Harry as he thrashed around on the bed, demanding darkness. Finally he wore himself out and sat up.

"Come on, get up" Lupin said again, putting a hand under one of his arms and tugging him to his feet. "Sirius made breakfast. He's waiting for you"

"Sirius made breakfast?" Harry asked, pulling out his usual pair of jeans and putting then on over his boxer shorts and following Lupin from the room.

Having Sirius make breakfast was a treat because, although he rarely did it, Harry's godfather was a talented chef.

Harry sat at the table as Lupin disappeared into the kitchen. He pulled the daily prophet towards him and stared at the front page where his own face stared back.

Ever since accidentally taking Voldemort's title of Evil wizard the previous year, the press had gone out of their way to bring him crashing down. Harry sighed and began reading the article.

POTTER OF AGE

_Harry Potter turns seventeen today and the ministry is having serious thoughts about taking away his privileges of using magic outside of school. _Writes Rita Skeeter. _After supposedly using an unforgivable curse on the minister of magic himself, the Wizengamot is going into session this morning to decide whether Potter should be able to take his age test and do his apparition exam._

They have already gone to session about Potter becoming an animagus even though he has yet to put in a claim.

"What worries us the most" comments the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, "is that we have no idea where he is. We received news only a week ago that Potter was no longer living at his uncle's house but is currently in hiding somewhere in London." Charges could be pressed against Dumbledore for hiding the boy without ministry clarification…

Harry scanned the rest of the page but it was mostly comments from other ministry officials about why he should or shouldn't do his age test.

Little did the ministry know, Harry had been practicing wandless magic and had been Apperating for half a year now and he had done a very good job of keeping it a secret.

"Harry Birthday, Harry!" Sirius came out of the kitchen with two plates of pancakes smothered in ice cream and maple syrup. Lupin came out carrying his own plate and the three of them sat down for breakfast.

When they were finished, Lupin took the plates back to the kitchen and Sirius bought out Harry's present; three magic books, a new servicing kit for his broom that claims it will make his broom even faster and a shit load of sweets.

Most boys would say this was pathetic but Harry, who had never had a proper birthday, was pleased all the same.

"We've got a surprise for later," Lupin said, returning from the kitchen and sitting down to read the latest article on Harry's life.

Harry sat, chatting to Sirius for a little longer before heading out to the living room where he had an exercise bike set up.

He turned the TV on to the music channel and began exercising furiously.

Over the entire summer, Harry had spent countless hours working his body and he was no longer the scrawny boy who was under nourished but a well built seventeen year old who spent a lot of time defining his pecks.

It was almost lunchtime when Harry finally stopped. Someone was knocking on the door and Harry, picking up his water bottle, went to open it, expecting it to be Kingsley, Tonks or Moody.

It wasn't. Instead, standing on the doorstep holding a weathered travel bag, was a skinny, pale girl with short black hair that spiked stylishly at the back and almost no existent breasts. She was wearing a black singlet top, a white vintage skirt and fake leather cowboy boots. She looked about fifteen or sixteen.

"Hi" she said awkwardly after a few minutes of Harry gaping at her. "Does Sirius Black live here?"

"How did you find this place?" Harry asked, stubbornly blowing off her question.

"Oh" she said, blushing a little under Harry's piercing glare. "Albus Dumbledore told me. So is Sirius home?"

"Who are you?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. My name is Jenna Black. I'm looking for my father. I'm Sirius' daughter"

Harry's jaw dropped and so did his water bottle. Now that he thought about it, this girl did look a lot like Sirius. Same dark hair, same pale skin, same vacant, black eyes.

"Sirius' what? Oh, come in" Harry picked his bottle up and led her down the hall to the dining room, preying that Sirius wasn't doing magic in case this girl was a muggle.

"Use a condom next time, mate" Harry said rudely, glad to find that his godfather was only reading the paper.

"What's going on, Harry?" Sirius asked, knowing full well that Harry knew not to bring home his muggle friends.

"My name is Jenna" the girl said as Harry sat at the end of the table and glared at her. "Albus Dumbledore told me I could find you here, I'm your daughter"

It was Sirius' turn to have his jaw drop.

"Your _what?_" Sirius looked at Harry as if this was some kind of joke. Harry gave the look back. "Well…well whose your mother?" Sirius was now glancing all around the room as if searching for a way out.

"Julie Brave"

"Julie Brave?" Harry and Sirius uttered simultaneously. Julie Brave was Harry's long lost godmother whom he'd only found out about the year before.

"Does she know you're here?" Sirius asked finally, realising that he'd have to be the adult here, seeing as Lupin was doing work up stairs in the study.

"Well…no. But I'm sure she's guessed. It's a long flight from New York" Jenna blushed again and glanced at Harry who put his feet up on the table and crossed his arms.

"Give me your number, I'll give her a call" Sirius collected the number and left the room.

"So…" Jenna said, seating herself on the end of a chair and smiling at Harry. Harry simply glared. He wasn't going to accept this girl. He, Sirius and Lupin were all loners in this world and here she was, messing it up. "I guess you're my brother then…Harry, isn't it? Where's your mother?" Jenna glanced at the door as if expecting a woman to appear. Harry grinded his teeth together as she started rambling on about her step dad and how she had always wanted to meet her real dad.

"Shut up!" Harry couldn't contain himself any longer. "Would you just shut up? You shouldn't bee here; you've ripped Sirius in half in the space of ten minutes! He doesn't need this! And I'm not your fucking brother!"

"Whoa! Slow down Harry…what?" Lupin had just come strolling in to the room and had just spotted the strange girl sitting at the table.

"Harry" Lupin said through his teeth "what did we say about bringing friends home?"

"She's not my friend" Harry growled back. "She's Sirius' love child"

"Oh god. I knew this would happen"

"What do you mean, you knew? You knew about her?" Harry clenched his fists in order to stay calm. He wasn't mad at Lupin, he was mad at the girl but because Lupin was speaking it seemed fair for him to cop it.

"Not about her, no!" Lupin seemed equally pissed off and Jenna sat through it all, smiling ever so slightly. "But I knew Sirius would do something like this. He was to bloody reckless for his own good! SIRIUS!" Lupin yelled as Sirius came back through the door "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" he gestured to Jenna with a wild hand.

"I'm trying to sort it out, ok?" Sirius said angrily before turning to Jenna. "I talked to your mother- Julie- and…"

"Julie? Julie Brave? Oh Sirius" Lupin groaned. He knew that Julie was Harry's godmother.

"_And_" Sirius continued, "she asked for you to stay here a while until she sorts out some marital problems with _Rick_." Sirius made a disgusted face as Lupin and Harry stared at him in horror at even mentioning the girl staying. "So I guess you can have the room next to Harry's…"

"WHAT?" Harry and Lupin shouted in disbelief. They stared at Sirius for a moment before Lupin stepped over hurriedly and turned Harry away from the other two.

"Your eyes" he whispered.

Harry's eyes had turned a glowing red. It wasn't anything new to him. All through the previous year, whenever he got uncontrollably angry, his eyes would turn red. This was never a good sign because it mean he needed to let off some steam. Last year he'd blown up a street and jumped off a cliff when he completely lost his mind.

Harry blinked a few times and breathed deeply until Lupin nodded and they turned back to Sirius and his daughter.

"She cant stay here" Harry said reasonably "we don't know if she's safe. What if she's a spy?"

"Dumbledore let her in, Harry" Sirius replied, giving Harry a cool stare. Harry returned it just as forcefully.

"Fine" he snarled after a minute or so. "But don't expect me to welcome her. I'm going to work" Harry stormed out of the room, slamming the door with such force that it cracked under his immense power, and ran upstairs to change into his work clothes.

For the past month and a half, Harry had been working at a garage a few miles away called 'The Pit Stop'. On the outside, The pit stop looked like any other petrol station but, in a big shed out the back, the three main mechanics ran a service out the back for illegally souped up cars that were used for street racing and raids.

Harry pulled on his pair of navy blue, heavy-duty jeans and slung his shirt over his shoulder before leaving again. He passed Lupin in the hall muttering angrily to himself before he let himself out onto the street and began to walk.

Most days Harry would walk the one and three quarter miles to and from work for exercise. Some days he would get a lift with Lupin who worked at Gringottes and, on the rare occasions that he was late, he would apperate or catch the knight bus.

Today, as he walked along the dusty streets of the rougher side of London, he could only feel hatred pounding in his ears. Hatred for Sirius, and Jenna. For some reason he felt a lot closer to Lupin today than any other.

Once he was off his home street though, Harry began to feel calmer and his anger was ebbing away with every step. He strolled past the local youth centre where, in a derelict basketball court, three, tall black boys were taking turns in shooting hoops. Outside the youth centre a few girls were lazing under a tree listening to rap music. Harry waved to them but didn't stop to talk. He'd become quite well known in the neighbourhood after getting a job at the pit stop. The pit stop, according to all residential teens, was the centre of all life and although all of them try and get jobs there, George, the owner, wouldn't take just anybody.

Harry had gotten his job through Kingsley who serviced his car there. Kingsley had also been teaching Harry to drive and now claimed that he was a natural.

Harry took a short cut across the soccer field and entered the garage five minutes early.

"Happy birthday, mate" said a tall boy with bleached blonde hair and a goofy smile as Harry entered the front shop.

"Thanks, Drew" Harry muttered, dropping his shirt on a shelf and leaning on the counter.

Harry and Drew, eighteen years old, were known as 'the front men' they worked out in the front shop, filling petrol tanks, checking tire pressure and proving food for single men, just like employees should in a garage.

Out the back though, in a massive shed, was where the real work was done. Rev-heads bought their hot-rod in for servicing by the main mechanics.

George, the owner, did most of the dirty work; working under the bonnet. Frank was next in line and he did kit work and body designs. The last guy was Razza. Razza was in charge of the computer works. He designed the cars from a laptop in the corner and made deals with other illegal companies.

"You get it" Drew said, watching an old lady in a pink Cadillac pull up by the pump. Harry left the shop and walked over to the lady's window.

"Oh, hello, Dear" she said, fumbling with her purse as Harry opened the petrol tank. "Could you fill it up, please?" she asked.

"Sure thing!" Harry said cheerily. He liked being nice to the old people.

After he'd finished with the old lady a steady stream of cars came in, keeping both boys busy late into the afternoon.

Harry was just letting an Asian girl in a pink sedan into the back shed when another girl with frizzy brown hair came dashing across the street.

"Harry!" Hermione said breathlessly, clutching at a stitch in her chest.

"Hi, Hermione" Harry said, sliding the roller doors closed behind the pink car. Hermione, who lived over the other side of London, in the neat suburbs, came to visit Harry quite often so it wasn't a shock to seen her here.

"Harry, you have to help me. I got caught robbing a bank on a security camera!"

"Why did you rob a bank?" Harry asked, frowning as he led her into the shop where Drew greeted her without looking up from his pricelist. "If you needed money you should have just asked." Harry began stacking cartons of milk into a fridge as Hermione stood beside him, wringing her hands and glancing at the door where the sound of sirens could be heard far off in the distance.

"But that's just it! I didn't rob the bank! I was outside talking to my friend, Leyla, who did rob the bank and when I said goodbye and walked away it looks like I went into the bank, pulling something from my purse."

"So what's the problem? You didn't do it"

"Harry, a security guard got shot. There was two girls in there and they only saw me and Leyla enter and now the cops know my name and every thing!"

"Alright!" Harry stood up, took Hermione by the wrist and led her through a back door into the main shed.

"George" Harry called to his boss as they strode across the shed, their footsteps echo only just noticeable under the beat of a cars radio.

George pulled himself from under a Blue Porsche and stared at Harry.

"George mate, I need to borrow a car"

George had three of his own cars that he kept at the garage, locked away in a smaller shed out the back. He had a black BMW, which was, in ever the case, the car Harry usually borrowed, a white Toyota Supra with blue racing stripes across the bonnet, boot and top of the car and, his most prized possession, a lemon yellow Lamborghini.

George watched Harry for a second longer as he wiped his greasy hands on an oil rag before reaching into his breast pocket.

"Take the Supra," he grumbled, throwing a set of keys at Harry.

Harry, a little nervous about taking Georges second favourite car out, nodded in thanks and led Hermione through another door and out to the cars.

"Wow" Hermione breathed, staring avidly at the gleaming Lamborghini as Harry unlocked the Supra. The sound of sirens was coming closer.

"Get in" Harry said, staring the car and loving the sound of the roaring motor beneath him. Hermione clambered into the passengers seat and Harry hit the accelerator.

"Where are we going?" Hermione inquired after Harry finally got his speed under control.

"I'm taking you home. You can stay there until I talk to Dumbledore and he can fix it up." But, no sooner had he spoken, a cop car came into view on the horizon. Harry swerved violently and headed down another street. The cop car turned in to the same street behind him so Harry parked to car and forced Hermione out.

"Come on" he muttered, taking her hand and forcing her to run down a dimly lit tunnel.

"This is the make out tunnel," Harry explained in a whisper as they passed a couple making out vigorously against the tunnel wall.

Torches flashed behind them and Harry knew immediately that the cops were looking for them. He stopped Hermione and pressed her against the wall.

"Hermione, you're going to have to kiss me," he murmured, glancing at the police as they broke another couple apart to question them.

"Harry…"

But Harry didn't listen. The torch beams fell on them and Harry pressed his lips emotionlessly against Hermione's.

The closest Harry had ever come to kissing his friend was a game of truth or dare the previous year and they were the only two who hadn't touched lips.

"You two!" one of the police said and Harry broke away from Hermione in mock surprise. Harry heard an odd clicking noise further up the tunnel but he paid it no attention. It was probably just a rat.

"Have either of you seen this girl? She's possibly dangerous as she is carrying a gun." One of the police men held up a photo which clearly showed Hermione's face, then they showed another one of the back of a girls head pointing a gun at a security officer.

"They're different girls" Harry said, glancing at Hermione who had her head bowed in fake embarrassment. Her hair hid her face.

"How can you tell?" the other cop asked, trying to peer around Harry at Hermione. Harry blocked his view as he stepped over to point at the photos.

"Well it's all in the hair. See this one," he pointed at the second photo. "The girls hair is straighter and a shade darker. Understand?" Harry raised an eyebrow and the cops glanced at each other.

"Sorry to bother you, sir" they said gruffly before continuing up the tunnel.

Harry watched them for a second before grabbing Hermione and running back to the car.

"I'm taking you back to Grimmauld place" Harry explained as they drove back to the pit stop. "This is getting to out of hand."

He pulled into the garage and the two of them got out.

"Thanks" Harry said, tossing the keys back to George who caught them deftly in one hand.

"Keep it," he growled with a gappy grin. "Happy birthday"

Harry caught the keys with his mouth hanging open. "George I can't…" he said, walking up to his boss and trying to force the car keys back on him.

"Its yours, Harry! Kingsley and his mates bought it for you a few weeks ago. It was never even my car!"

Harry mouthed listlessly before breaking into a grin and hugging the large man. "Thanks mate"

"Ah, get off. Go home! Your late already!"

Harry glanced at a clock on the wall and realised he was over an hour late home. Harry grabbed Hermione again and led her back to his new car.

"Thanks again, George" he grinned and shut the door.

The drive home was quite thrilling and Harry was sorry it was over. He was even more sorry when he realised that Jenna would still be there.

"Hermione" Harry stopped her on the doorstep. "There's a girl in there- Jessica, no, Jenna- I just thought I'd warn you"

"Who is she?" Hermione asked as they stepped into the dark hallway. Harry put a finger to his lips when he heard talking coming from the living room. The two friends pressed themselves up against the wall and edged closer to the door.

"…Harry Potter? _The_ Harry Potter?" came Jenna's disbelieving voice.

"Yeah." Sirius replied "but listen Jenna, you need to be careful around Harry. If you get him angry he could, well, explode and become extremely dangerous. You must exercise caution when speaking to him"

"I will. Thanks, dad"

Hermione's jaw dropped. "_Dad_?" she mouthed. Harry nodded sadly and led her onto the dining room where Lupin and Kingsley were deep in discussion.

"Happy birthday, Harry! Like your new toy?" Kingsley grinned, watching Harry get drinks for himself and Hermione.

"She's great, thanks guys" Harry grinned and sat down.

"Your Hogwarts letters came. I was wondering why Hermione's turned up here." Lupin handed over two letters addressed in green ink.

Simultaneously, they tore them open and there was a clunk as something heavy fell out of Hermione's. She stared at the glistening red badge in shock then screamed.

"HEAD GIRL! I'M HEAD GIRL!"

"Congratulations!" Lupin said, laughing as Hermione jumped up and hugged Harry. Then she turned and hugged the other two.

"What's going on? Oh, hi Hermione" Sirius came strolling into the room with Jenna close behind, now wearing a pale blue sun dress. Hermione stopped jumping around and stared at the other girl. Both of them sized each other up then Hermione smiled and held out her hand.

"Hi Jenna, I'm Harry's friend, Hermione"

"Hi" Jenna said stiffly with her nose in their air. She didn't accept Hermione's hand; instead she stared at Harry. Hermione's hand fell limply to her side and her smile turned slowly into a smirk.

"Listen" Harry said slowly, glancing wearily at Jenna. His good mood was slowly ebbing away. "Hermione was falsely accused of stealing and assault. How do we fix that?"

Kingsley glanced at Lupin.

"I'll get Dumbledore"

_well this is the first chapter done. Hope you enjoyed and I hope you review. Until next!_


	2. The Thing from Egypt

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

**NOTE: this is part two of I was almost killed then they came. You don't have to read that one first but if you want more understanding then please do. I wrote this before the sixth book came out so don't be surprised if it's completely different. The person who dies at the end of the half blood prince is still alive in this story and Fudge is still minister of magic. Enjoy it anyway! And remember to review at the end!**

Chapter 2 

Harry woke a little earlier than he would have like the next morning due to scraping noises coming from the room next door. He groaned and covered his head with a pillow as he remembered Jenna.

The scraping noise became louder and finally Harry flung himself out of bed, knowing that today would be horrible. Later that night he had to go to the ministry with Lupin and Tonks to get his 'of age' certificate and do his apparition test.

Instead of getting dressed, he slouched off to the bathroom down the hall.

Grimmauld place had three bathrooms. One downstairs, one on the second landing which Harry kept to himself and one on the next floor which Lupin and Sirius shared.

The first change he noticed in his little bathroom was the pink, wet towel tossed across his own towel. He groaned and tossed the intruding towel on the floor near the door before getting in the shower.

When he got out he noticed a purple toothbrush on the sink. He threw it on top of the towel and opened his cabinet to get his razor out. There was a chick's razor in there, plus female deodorant and a box of tampons.

In sudden rage, Harry collected everything that didn't belong to him and marched down the hall to Jenna's room.

"That bathroom is off limits. Show a bit of respect and keep your girly shit in here!" he shouted, slamming her belongings to the floor where they scattered all over the place.

"That's not fair" Jenna said, slightly afraid. "Who says it's your bathroom"

"Me, now you keep out!" he slammed her door, rattling the foundation of the house as he did.

Suddenly feeling like he would throw up, Harry ran downstairs and to the door. He knew what was going to happen. He'd reached exploding point, just as Sirius had said.

"You ok?" Lupin poked his head out of the living room door. Harry noticed a picture of Egypt taped to the wall with a note for Sirius scribbled on it.

"I need to…explode" Harry muttered, pushing the door open as Lupin hauled himself out of the room. But before he could stop him, Harry had Disapperated.

"Shit!" Lupin was running back inside to get Sirius when he noticed the note taped to the wall.

He paused, his mind racing desperately. Should he go and find Sirius? Or go straight to Harry. He decided on the latter and scrambled back outside before disapparating to the location on the picture.

Harry landed in the sand on his knees. He shut his eyes and struggled to keep his mind under control as his anger reached peaking point.

His skin turned a reddish-gold colour and when he couldn't hold on any longer he simply let it all go.

Magic mixed with anger and frustration erupted from him as an energy source. It soared over one hundred metres in ever direction, breaking the sound barrier as it did so.

Finally Harry was able to pull himself up just short of exhaustion. He needed to apperate home after all.

When he stood up he found himself standing in a shallow crater, feeling light headed and happy.

Lupin appeared several meters away and stared around himself in shock before sprinting over to Harry.

"Are you alright?" he gasped. Harry nodded.

"We can go home now," he said but no sooner had the words left his mouth, then his scar burst into pain. He gasped and clutched his head.

"Voldemort?" Lupin asked, barely whispering.

"No" Harry straightened up, the pain gone as quickly as it had come, though there was a slight ringing in his ears.

It took him a second to realise that it was actually someone screaming.

"Do you hear that?" Harry asked, frowning and peering out into the horizon.

"Yes" Lupin was looking around to.

The screaming, sounding very much like a child, was becoming louder until it split in two and became two screams.

"We have to help them" Harry started forward but Lupin stopped him.

"Its an illusion. Hear how it keeps splitting? Someone is trying to get you into the desert. Harry we have to go"

Suddenly a strong wind picked up, blowing sand in their eyes and making it hard to breathe. Harry bought up a shield with his hands and he and Lupin were cocooned in it, safe from the storm but unable to apperate. A figure appeared, strolling through the sand as if it was a day in the park.

Harry, startled at the man's sudden arrival, lifted one hand and pointed at him. Purple lightening shot from his fingertips, arced across the sand and hit the thin, frayed man in the chest. But instead of knocking him off his feet, the man stretched his arms out and let Harry's magic flow through him. Slowly he became more masculine, and a lot stronger.

Harry dropped his hand and backed away with Lupin at his side, his yelling lost in the roaring wind. Then he heard his name. The man was calling him in a deep, vibrating voice. "_Harry Potter_"

Harry felt his power weakening and his shield began to flicker as the man came closer.

"Apperate! Harry you have to apperate!" he could only just hear Lupin's voice and suddenly his brain clicked.

He apperated.

The two of them landed heavily on the stone steps of Grimmauld place. The front door was still wide open from Lupin's quick departure. Harry ran up the steps, lost his balance due to lack of energy and staggered sideways into the wall. Lupin came in behind him and grabbed him by the back of the shirt.

"Get up, Harry. We're almost there"

Together they stumbled blindly to the dining room where Harry collapsed across the table, desperate to maintain consciousness. Lupin tried to help him but he seemed somewhat drained himself and only managed to sit down.

"Harry, give me one good reason why Jenna can't use that bathroom!" Sirius came storming in with his illegitimate daughter in tow. He seemed completely unaware that Harry and Lupin had just come very close to death. Harry pushed himself up to yell at Sirius but fell backwards into a cabinet full of china. There was the tinkling of glass and Lupin stood up.

"Get Dumbledore," he ordered.

"What happened?" Sirius tried to get to Harry but Lupin stopped him.

"Get Dumbledore. We can talk after that" Sirius once again tried to object but Lupin pulled out his wand. Sirius closed his mouth and left the room.

"It knows my name" Harry gasped. "Why did it know my name?"

"Be quiet, Harry" Lupin said before turning to Jenna who was still standing in the doorway. "Jenna, get some chocolate please"

Jenna opened her mouth, just like Sirius, to object and this sent Lupin into a fury. "For gods sake, Jenna! Stop being a bitch like your father and get the bloody chocolate!"

Jenna stared at him in shock before storming out of the room in the opposite direction of the kitchen. Lupin cursed loudly and swaggered through a different door.

The fire opposite Harry burst into green flames and the figure of Albus Dumbledore appeared.

"Harry" he said sharply, moving across the room to where Harry was still clutching the china cabinet for support. Sirius appeared in the fireplace as Lupin came back from the kitchen with two lumps of chocolate and handed one to Harry who ate it gratefully.

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked as a few more order members appeared in the fireplace. Jenna came back and stood at the door, glaring haughtily at Lupin.

"Harry apperated to Egypt to let off some steam, I guess you could say, and something appeared…" Lupin looked at Harry for help.

"It sucked up my spell like a dying plant would with water. It got bigger, stronger, and started sucking my magic from the air"

"Mine two" Lupin added.

"Did you see what it looked like?" Dumbledore asked, traces of concern in his voice.

"Like a man. It was hard to tell. There was a heavy wind and sand blowing everywhere. But it said Harry's name. It was calling for him…" Lupin stopped speaking as Harry gasped.

"_Sands of Egypt blew,_"he recited the first line of the prophecy Voldemort had told him the spring before"_Ancient Power stirring, _Sir, do you think this could be the starting of the prophecy?" he looked at Dumbledore who nodded slowly.

Harry tried to stand up. "I have to tell Voldemort," he said but Dumbledore forced him into a chair.

"No, Harry, I will not let you go and find him while you are this weak."

"Maybe this thing could kill Voldemort for us!" Kingsley suggested and most of the people around, including Sirius, nodded in agreement.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?" Harry shouted. "THAT THING SUCKED UP MY MAGIC AS IF IT WAS A SQUIBS SPELL! MY MAGIC WAS ITS LIFE FORCE!"

"Stop it, Harry" Dumbledore said sharply "we need to think this through, if this…being… can bring Voldemort down then we should let it"

"Harry's right, Albus" Lupin said quietly. "It didn't even attack us and yet here's Harry, sitting her with every ounce of his magical energy drained."

"Voldemort is like a petty thug compared to that" Harry muttered "go see for yourself"

Dumbledore contemplated this for a moment. "Where is it?" he asked and Lupin hurried out to get the picture from the wall. When he bought it back, Dumbledore examined it before leaving the room, his robes billowing behind him.

Harry slumped back in his chair and stared at Jenna who smirked at him.

"Weak" she mouthed at him and Harry almost lost control again which meant his magic was restoring itself rapidly.

There was a loud bang in the hallway and Dumbledore appeared, clutching the wall for something to hold onto.

"We have a problem," he gasped.

Dumbledore gave himself ten minutes to recover before informing the waiting order members about how his magic had been sucked the second he'd hit the ground.

"Harry, what made you angry enough to go there in the first place?" he asked when he'd finished his recount. Harry blinked a few times before pointing at Jenna.

"Her" he growled.

"Me?" she said in an innocent voice full of surprise. "I have been as nice as possible to you and how do you say thanks?" she turned to the watching group. "He trashes my belongings, restricts me from certain parts of the house and him," she pointed at Lupin. "He called me a bitch"  
"What!" Sirius turned on Lupin who was glaring at Jenna. "What the hell did she do to you?"

"Shut up, Sirius" Lupin growled. "I warned you not to get mixed up with riff-raff like her."

"So I'm riff-raff now, am I?" Jenna said shrilly.

"I'm going to work," Harry announced loudly, checking his watch.

"No your not" Lupin swung around and grabbed him by the arm. "Kingsley, tell your people Harry can't make it today."

"Why not?" Harry wrenched free and stared at Lupin.

"You need to rest. You have your test tonight and it won't do you any good to be fixing cars all afternoon. Shut up, Sirius!" Lupin turned back to his Sirius who was now raging about how he let Harry and Lupin into his home and they show no respect for him family.

"I thought we were your family!" Harry stated, feeling quite hurt at Sirius' words.

"Well Jenna is more family isn't she?"

"STOP!" Dumbledore stood up. And every one fell quite. "Harry, go to bed. The ministry is expecting you at seven thirty tonight. Rest as much as you can. You need to be able to apperate. Lupin you need rest to. The rest of you come back to my office"

Harry stormed out of the room; shoulder barging Jenna as he passed. She fell back into the wall and Sirius began to yell again.

When he reached his room he slammed and locked the door before falling on top of his bed, completely exhausted.

When Sirius came to wake him it was dark.

"Time to go" he said shortly before leaving again. Harry sat up groggily and smoothed his messy hair over his forehead.

Tonks and Lupin were waiting in the hall and Lupin looked just as dead as Harry felt.

"Hi, Harry" Tonks grinned under her locks of blue hair.

"We're going already?" Harry yawned patted his pocket to make sure he had his wand.

"We over slept" Lupin said, smiling guiltily. "How are you feeling?"

"Completely screwed," Harry answered, opening the door and stepping onto the dimly lit street.

"You car or mine?" Tonks asked, still grinning. Harry grinned back and opened the door of his car and climbed behind the wheel.

Tonks got in the passengers seat and Lupin got in the back.

Harry started the car and moved off slowly down the street.

"I though Kingsley said you were a good driver," Tonks said, frowning.

"What am I doing wrong?"

"Well for starters you drive like…"

As he reached the first intersection, Harry slammed his foot on the accelerator and they went flying down a straight. Lupin clutched his seat belt in the back seat but didn't say anything; he merely smiled.

"What do I drive like?" Harry asked, grinning as Tonks whooped when he ran a red light.  
"I was going to say Grandma but- turn!" Harry skidded onto a smaller street and he let his speed drop back to the legal limit. "I'm going to have to take you racing one day" Tonks struggled to hold back her laughter.

The finally made it to the derelict phone booth and all three squeezed inside.

"Nymphadora Tonks, Auror" Tonks stated happily when the cool female voice asked. "I'm escorting Remus Lupin and Harry Potter to an Apperating test"

"Visitors, please take the badges and prepare to present your wands for checking at the gate"

_Hope you enjoyed and I hope you review. Until next!_


	3. Dursley's here I come!

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 3 

After having their wands checked, Tonks led the other two to one of the elevators and pressed the up button. They rattled up to the second from top floor at a leisurely pace, greeting other witches and wizards who used their elevator.

When they got off they found Fudge waiting for them in front of a steel door with a cool expression on his face.

"Right" he said shortly and opened the door. As he stepped into the cavernous, circular room, Harry began to hope that his magic had recharged enough.

"Have you studied the travel pamphlets?" Fudge asked as a flag appeared in the middle of the room.

"Err…yes," Harry answered although he'd done nothing of the sort.

"So you're confident that you can apperate? Good" Fudge scribbled something on a clipboard before looking at Harry again. "Disapperate to the flag then"

Harry raised an eyebrow, sure that there must be more to this then just doing it. After a moment he obliged and found himself standing next to the flag.

"Good" Fudge's beady eyes narrowed "now come back to me"

Harry did so and Fudge gave him the clipboard to sign. Then Lupin signed it and Fudge handed him a stack of papers.

"Read and sign these when you get home and get them back here in a week. Congratulations, Potter, you've passed your test. You may now apperate and use appropriate magic at you leisure"

Then he left.

"That was a bit quick" Tonks said as they made their way home. "Usually he reads through all the rules tells you exactly how to do it. Never mind though"

Harry spent the rest of the holidays living on edge. Every single day he would fight with Jenna, which ended in a fight with Sirius then, Lupin would come to Harry's defence and they would have screaming rages until one person left the room. Harry began dreading living there so much that he worked extra hours before and after work just to stay away.

There was exactly one week left of the summer and the order members were on edge because the end of summer meant Voldemort's cease-fire was over.

Harry had finally come home from work and had found Jenna in his room, searching through his drawers.

"What are you doing?" he asked, leaning on the doorframe and crossing his arms. She jumped a mile and span round to face him.

"I-I lost- lost…"

"Liar" he spat, lunging into the room and dragging her out. "What were you looking for?"

"Ouch! Nothing! I wasn't looking for anything! Let me go!" she wrenched free of his grip at the bottom of the stairs and tried to run away.

Harry made a grabbing motion in the air and an invisible hand closed around her wrist.

"Let…me…go!" she screeched, struggling to free herself.

"What were you doing in there!" he shouted, making a jerking motion so she came flying back across the hall towards him.

"What are you doing, Harry?" Sirius stuck his head out of the dining room.

"She was searching my room," he growled, giving her arm another tug.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it" Sirius strode over with a light laugh. "Let her go"

"Oh of course you side with her!" Harry tightened his grip as Sirius tried to pry his invisible fingers open. "You don't even care that I might have had something private in there. You always believe your stupid little princess."

"She's my daughter, Harry, now let her go!"

Lupin came running down the stairs with a distressed look on his face.

"What's going on?"

"She was going through my stuff in my room and Sirius thinks it was a mistake"

"Why was she going through your room?"

"Because she's a fucking spy!"

"She's my daughter!" Sirius roared

"And what, I'm just some idiot you bought in off the street because you pity me?"

"LET HER GO!"

Harry released his grip and sent the girl flying back into the wall.

"I want you to remember, Harry" Sirius snarled "I let you into my home, have a little respect. I could have easily let you go back to the Dursley's."

The previous summer Harry had been brutally bashed by his uncle.

"Well they'd treat me a lot better than you are now!"

"That's enough, Harry! I'm sick of your jealous attacks on Jenna. Grow up, would you?"

"Fine" Harry said simply, he'd just noticed the smile on Jenna's face. "I'm grown up… AND I'M LEAVING!"

He turned and ran back up the stairs to his room. As he packed his trunk he could hear Lupin continuing the argument down below.

"…We didn't have any troubles until she showed up!"

"Only because Harry's to childish to share"

"SHE WAS GOING THROUGH HIS ROOM, SIRIUS! WHAT IF HE'D HAD ORDER BUSINESS IN THERE?"

"Dumbledore trusts her!"

"Dumbledore trust all of Harry's friends and yet they aren't allowed to know what's going on! How do we know Julie didn't turn into a death eater? She could have sent Jenna as a spy!"

Jenna appeared at Harry's doorway.

"He sticks up for me because he's _my_ dad," she said haughtily as Harry slammed his trunk closed.

"Yeah well, think yourself lucky that you have one!" he barged past her and ran down the stairs again, his trunk clunking heavily behind him.

He threw the front door open and Lupin broke off from his argument.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the Dursley's" Harry tore out to the street and popped the boot on his car. Lupin appeared behind him.

"Your not really going back there, are you?" he asked, pale faced.

"No. I'm going to Drew's house. I'll come back the night before we leave ok? Invite Hermione and the Weasley's or something."

"What about Voldemort?"

"What about him? If he surfaces then I'll fight. Don't tell Sirius where I am"

Lupin mouthed listlessly before running back inside.

"HE'S GOING TO THE DURSLEY'S! AND YOU'RE JUST GOING TO STAND THERE?" Harry heard the argument flare up again as he got behind the wheel. Sirius suddenly appeared at his window.

"Don't go, Harry. I didn't mean it," he pleaded. Harry ignored him and went flying down the road, leaving Grimmauld place behind him.

He knew where Drew lived; he'd stayed there a few times in the past weeks. He lived in an apartment a few neighbourhoods over.

Harry parked outside the five-story building and sat staring at the steering wheel for a few moments before getting his trunk and taking the lift to the third floor.

"Harry!" Drew said in surprise as he opened the door.

"Can I stay here for a while?" Harry asked tiredly "I had some troubles at home"

"Sure!" Drew stood back and let Harry in.

For an eighteen-year-old boy, Drew sure knew how to keep his apartment clean.

Harry dragged his trunk down the hall to the spare bedroom the joined Drew in the kitchen where he was halfway through making himself a sandwich.

Harry helped himself to an apple from the fridge and the two boys sat in front of the little box television where they watched the end of a wrestling match.

"How long do you reckon you'll be staying?" Drew asked halfway through his second sandwich.

"Couple of days, if that's ok with you"

"Stay as long as you want! It'll be nice to have a little company"

It was fairly late when Drew bought out a carton of beer and an x-rated movie and both boys sat until the early hours of the morning destroying their problems with alcohol and porn.

It felt like an age as Harry rolled over the next morning. His head was spinning and the sunlight was blazing horribly through the window. He groaned and rolled right out of bed where he lay with his face pressed against the cool floor.

Eventually he was awake enough to get up and have a long shower.

"You don't drink much, do you?" Drew asked as Harry entered the living room, rubbing his eyes.

"No" Harry mumbled and slouched on the couch beside his host. Drew was playing a racing game on the play station and he soon asked Harry to join in.

That afternoon at work Harry got a visit from Tonks as she dropped in to get her nitrogen tanks re-filled.

"You should see Sirius," she said after she'd deposited her car to the mechanics and had come out into the shop for a packet of Doritos.

"I'll bet he's happy I'm gone," Harry said blankly, barely glancing up from his paper work.

"Quite the opposite" Tonks replied, munching thoughtfully on her chips. "He looks as if he's been sentenced back to Azkaban. And the girl, what ever her name is, isn't making it much easier. Lupin was screaming at her this morning when I got there because she wanted to stay in your room"

"Did she?"

"Nah, but it wont be long before she does. Sirius wants to go over to your uncles house and kidnap you but Lupin wont let him." Tonks put her chips down and stared at Harry. "Your not really staying at the Dursley's, are you? Because my house is always open"

"Course I'm not staying there" Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust "I'm hanging at Drew's place for a while"

"Good" she said, giving him another strange look before going back to the main garage for her car.

Harry and Drew were driving home when Drew decided he needed a bottle of rum. Harry pulled up outside the liquor store. Harry, not aloud in because he was under eighteen, stood outside the door waiting. He spotted two boys standing a few metres away hunched over a box. They looked about fourteen so Harry didn't pay them much attention until the taller of the two pulled out a stick and began tapping the box.

Harry realised, with a jolt of his stomach, that it was a wand. He'd never seen these boys before. They didn't go to Hogwarts but they had British accents. He decided to investigate.

He strolled past them and 'accidentally' bumped into one of them.

"Hey what…" they turned angrily to Harry. The shorter one glanced him over and his eyes rested on Harry's forehead. He backed hurriedly into the wall and gasped.

"Harry Potter!" the other one stammered.

"Do I know you?" Harry raised an inquisitive eyebrow. The boys looked at each other then ran. Harry watched them leave with a frown before heading back to his car. Drew was waiting for him with a tall bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag.

"We're going to have a party tonight!" he said excitedly as Harry started the car.

The next few days at Drew's apartment were very much like the first. Both boys would stay up late into the night drinking until one of them threw up then they would sleep late, go to work and repeat the process.

Sadly, Harry began looking forward to the hours he spent drunk in Drew's living room. Being drunk meant that he wasn't thinking about his problems.

On the last day of staying there, Harry and Drew decided to walk home. Drew bought a flask out of his pocket and the shared it as they wandered along the streets. They were almost home and feeling rather giggly when a black car pulled up beside them. Kingsley got out and stopped them.

"Kingso!" Drew shouted. He had an arm around Harry's neck and was swaying slightly. Harry, holding the flask, raised it in greeting.

"What are you doing?" Kingsley asked, watching as Harry burst into a fit of uncontrollable hysterics. "Have you been drinking, Harry?"

"Only a little" Harry squinted at him and raised his thumb and forefinger so they were a centimetre apart.

"Give me that" Kingsley grabbed at the flask but Harry held it out of his reach before forcing it back on Drew who took a swig.

"Have you eaten? You look like hell, Harry, let me buy you a meal"

"I'm fine!" Harry said loudly. "I'll be home tomorrow"

Kingsley stared at him a moment longer before getting back in his car and leaving with a squeal of the tires.

Harry set his alarm for early the next morning. He planned to go into Diagon ally and get his books before going home. He'd gotten the day off work so he was in no rush as he walked through the doorway and down the sunny street of Diagon ally.

The first thing he saw was, sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, a pretty girl with golden blonde curly hair and dancing green eyes, laughing at a boy with similar features. Harry strolled up behind her and leant down to kiss her on the cheek.

"Harry!" Claire screamed, jumping up and tipping over her chair to hug him. Claire had a sugary curl on her French accent making her sound continually flirty.

"How was France?" Harry asked, taking a seat between her and the boy who looked around twenty.

"It was great! We got to see all the family again. Oh this is my brother Cameron. Cameron, this is Harry"

"Nice to meet you" Cameron shook Harry's hand before standing up. "I'll see you later, Claire," he said before strolling off towards the Leaky cauldron.

"Have you done any shopping yet?" Harry asked as Claire paid the waiter.

"Nope. I have to go down to Gringotts and get some money"

"Lets go then" Harry took her hand and laced his fingers through hers as they set off towards the towering green bank of Gringotts.

Harry had all the money he'd made from working, almost three thousand pounds, that he wanted to exchange for galleons.

Working behind the exchange desk was a young lady with silvery blonde hair and a lustrous smile.

"Fleur!" Claire screamed, running over to hug the girl.

"'Ello Claire" Fleur replied. "Are you 'aving fun at 'Ogwarts?"

"Course I am! Do you remember Harry? We're dating now"

Fleur turned to Harry with a small smile.

" 'Ow could I forget? 'Ow are you, 'Arry?"

"Fine thanks." Harry replied, dropping his bag of money on the counter. "Can you exchange these for me? I'll be right back" Harry had just noticed Lupin, who was in charge of security, chatting eminently to a goblin.

"Harry!" he exclaimed when Harry tapped him on the shoulder. "You look like hell? Have you eaten since you left?"

"A little bit" he replied, "how are things at home?"

"Sirius is ready to kill himself, I'm ready to kill Jenna and she's been sleeping in your room. I think she thinks that now your gone she can just take over. You're coming home this afternoon, right?"

"I'm just getting my books"

"Good because Hermione, Draco and the Weasleys are heading over."

"Great" Harry, through a turn of strange events, had become close friends with Draco Malfoy. They shared a telepathic connection and the fact that their carers had bashed them both. Malfoy was also going steady with, much to Ron's disgust, Hermione.

"Lets go, Harry!" Claire came over and handed him a huge sack of gold.

"Hello, Claire" Lupin said with an amused smile.

"Hello" she replied, blushing.

"I'll see you later" Harry said before linking hands with Claire again and walking out of the bank.

They spent a sunny morning shopping and browsing through shops. It was the best day Harry had had since his birthday.

Harry was just saying goodbye to Claire with an extremely passionate kiss when someone came up behind him.

"Hey, Potter" he turned away from Claire with a grin.

"How you going, Malfoy?"

Malfoy was standing with his arms crossed beside Blaise Zabini.

"Can't complain" he shrugged and Harry noticed a fading bruise on his friends face. He frowned.

"Has he been hitting you again?"

"Yeah but it's ok, he got his share fair back. He only did it about three times"

They chatted for a few more minutes before Blaise glanced at his watch and pronounced himself late.

"I've got my apparition test late this afternoon so I'll be there after dark" Malfoy said as Blaise dragged him away. Harry waved, said another passionate goodbye to Claire before collecting his bundle of books and heading back to his car.

Harry stood on the doorstep of Grimmauld place with his trunk, unsure if he really wanted to go in. a hot breeze was picking up, blowing dust down the road and Harry wondered for a split second if it would ever rain.

Finally he opened the door and stepped into the cool hallway. He couldn't hear anyone so he took his trunk upstairs to his room.

His bed was unmade and littered with an array of soft toys. Clothes were scattered across the floor and a worn travel bag sat open by the door.

Harry laughed and shook his head. Jenna had done a good job of taking over.

Slowly he began to collect her belongings in her bag and took them back to the room next door. He then went to his bathroom and collected all her toiletries as he had done on her first day here and took them to her room as well.

He then strolled back downstairs to the dining room where he found Sirius mulling over a bottle of firewhisky.

"I'm back," Harry said quietly and Sirius jumped to his feet.

"Harry I'm so sorry" he said and Harry could tell he meant it. "It wasn't fair of me to always side with Jenna. I had a good talk to her and…"

"And let her move into my room. Didn't you think I'd come back?"

"Sorry. I didn't know what to do"

"Doesn't matter. I've already shifted her stuff" Harry looked around the room carefully to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. "When are the Weasley's coming?"

"They should be here any minute and Hermione wants you to go and pick her up"

"I'll do that now then," Harry said, turning to the door. Sirius stopped him.

"Harry we need to talk"

"About what?"

"Kingsley said he found you drunk on the street yesterday."

"Oh" Harry ran his fingers through his hair a few times. "I was with a friend. We were just having a bit of fun"

"Have you eaten at all?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Harry replied angrily.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? Your all pale and dishevelled."

"I had a few light meals," Harry said, which was half true. He'd eaten a bit of food but he'd consumed more alcohol then solids over the past week.

"I'll be back soon" he left again but this time he found Jenna leaning on the door with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"So you came crawling back," she said haughtily.

"I know you missed me and I'd give you a hug but…" he looked her up and down with a smirk on his own face. "God knows what trash hole you've been in"

Jenna's smirk vanished and she stood up straighter before withdrawing her wand. Harry laughed loudly.

"Your not seriously going to fight me, are you? Get out of my way I have to go"

"Your not as strong as everyone says you are" she whispered maliciously

"You don't know how many people have asked me that just to suffer the consequences" Harry replied coolly. Jenna raised her wand higher.

"Jenna!" Sirius appeared in the doorway behind Harry. Jenna dropped her wand and pouted slightly.

"He was trying to attack me, dad! He was trying to make me leave!"

Harry said nothing. Instead he turned to see Sirius' reaction. He face was hard with fury.

"Get out of his way, Jenna"

"But Dad!" she complained but moved over so Harry could leave.

_Please review. I love reviews!_


	4. it attacks again

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 4 

Harry arrived at Hermione's neat suburban house in record time. He knocked on her door and her mother answered.

"Oh, hello, Harry!" she greeted him and pulled him inside. "Hermione's at the pool with her friends. I'll get her trunk and you can pick her up there"

She gave Harry the address of the local pool and he packed her trunk into the back of his car before setting off once more.

He parked in the shade outside the pool and scanned the water for Hermione. He spotted her tossing a ball to a redheaded girl and splashing around in a bikini. Harry was shocked. He didn't think Hermione wore clothing, if that's what you called it, like that. Either he'd never noticed or she'd really come out of the closet since dating Malfoy.

He hit the horn a few times until she spotted him and waved. She hugged her friends goodbye and climbed out of the pool, grabbed a yellow duffle bag and ran through the gates and around to Harry's car.

"Hey Harry!" she said breathlessly, tossing her bag on the back seat before tying a tiny sarong around her waist and jumping in the front.

Back in the pool, Hermione's friends were watching her with awe at the fact that she had just gotten into some guys racing car.

Harry could see Hermione, out of the corner of his eye as he turned the key, glancing down at her friends as she tried to hold back a smile. They were all whispering to each other so Harry, thinking it might be fun to play, hit the accelerator so hard that the tires squealed and span before they even moved off. Finally the car when roaring down the street, music blearing from the subwoofers in the boot until the pool was out of sight. It was now that Harry steadied his speed and shut the music off completely.

"That was great!" Hermione gasped.

"Did Dumbledore sort out the bank thing?" Harry asked, slowing down so a semi-trailer could take the road.

"Yeah. He took one look at the footage then found the girl and turned her in. Leyla wont talk to me now though."

"You don't need friends like that," Harry informed her.

"What about you. You look like you haven't eaten for a month."

"I had a bit of trouble with Jenna so I left home for a while and stayed at a friends place"

"Oh Harry!" Hermione looked shocked. "What did she do?"

"She was searching my room. I attacked her and had a fight with Sirius. Speaking of attack, did you hear about…" Harry continued to tell her about the thing in the desert. It took him the whole way home to tell the story and by the time they pulled up outside Grimmauld place Hermione looked terrified.

"It sucked magic from Dumbledore?" she hissed as Harry unlocked the front door.

The first thing they heard was a baby screaming. The Weasleys had arrived and they'd bought Ginny's four-month-old baby with them.

They stepped into the dining room where everyone else was and Hermione got an odd mix of reactions towards her choice of outfit.

Mrs Weasley looked shocked, Ron looked disgusted, Ginny complimented her and Jenna seemed a touch jealous.

Ginny was sitting at the end of the table, bouncing baby Laura Thomas-Weasley on her knee.

Harry and Hermione had been pronounced her godparents when Ginny had given birth and Harry had taking up the title with pride.

Now he wandered over and plucked the baby up in his arms. Laura had darker than olive skin, fluffy black hair and ocean blue eyes. Harry though she was beautiful as he took in her beautiful baby smell. She gurgled at him and he didn't want to give her up to Hermione who wanted a hug.

"She's so adorable!" Hermione cooed.

"Yeah well, you try living with her" Ron muttered, glaring at the baby with much distaste.

"Are you coming back to school, Ginny?" Harry asked. Ginny's bubbly smile faded slightly.

"Yes. But I'm not aloud to take Laura. She has to live with Mum while I'm away"

Just over the holidays Ginny looked like she'd matured a few years or so.

"Hello everyone!" Lupin came into the room smiling for no apparent reason.

"Hello!" the Weasleys and Hermione chorused.

"We have to figure out sleeping arrangements," Sirius said, coming out of the kitchen with a tray of butterbeers. Harry felt the sudden urge to knock them over and ask for rum.

"Molly and Arthur can have the same room as always. So can Fred and George when they arrive. Hermione and Jenna can have the girls' room. Ginny can go in the study with the baby and Ron and Draco can have the room that Draco had last time he was here."

Ron wrinkled his nose. "I have to sleep with Malfoy?" Ron felt threatened by Malfoy and hadn't taken to him the way Hermione and Harry had.

"Move your bed into my room" Harry said with a superior glance at Jenna.

Hermione, looking delighted at the fact that Malfoy would come, suddenly turned pale and sat down, thinking.

"Haven't you been feeding Harry, Sirius?" Molly said suddenly.

"Course I have, why?"

"He's skin and bones! And look how white and sunken his face is! I'm going to start on dinner" she took her shopping bags and hurried into the kitchen.

"She's right, Harry" Ron said, frowning slightly "you do look sick"

"I'm fine," he said with a sideways glance at Sirius. "Lets go move that bed"

The hot breeze from before had now turned into a raging dust storm and it rattled Harry's window as he, Hermione and Ron dragged the bed in there and positioned it against the wall.

Sirius poked his head in the door as Hermione left to unpack her things.

"You mum wants you, Ron," he said and Ron got up, quite reluctantly, and left. Sirius smiled lightly at Harry before continuing along the hall. The wind outside was becoming stronger by the second and was now rattling the whole house. Harry stood up to go downstairs when there was the tinkling of breaking glass as his window smashed and wind and dust came blowing into his room at the force of a bullet. Harry stabled himself and tried to get over to the window. The wind roared in his ears and he didn't hear Sirius enter the room behind him. Suddenly it was calling him. A deep, vibrating voice, travelling on the wind was calling for him. "_Harry Potter_"

Harry felt himself being jolted to the floor as Sirius dived on him. The wind and dust began spiralling around the room in a tornado like fashion. Sirius pressed him against the floor and reached for his wand.

"NO!" Harry shouted, knocking it away. "IT'LL SUCK YOUR MAGIC UP! IT'S THE THING FROM EGYPT!"

Harry, his eyes shut against the sand, put his hand above his head to the shattered windowpane.

"REPARO!" He shouted and the glass flew back to its original position. Harry felt his magic being drained in the split second before the glass was mended and the wind was locked out. The dust and sand stopped dancing around his room and fell, scattering over the carpet and furniture.

Now that the noise of the wind was gone Harry could hear screaming from downstairs. He pushed Sirius away and jumped to his feet. The two of them ran downstairs and found the hall full of raging wind as well. The windows either side of the door had shattered and Harry could only just make out the forms of several people pressed against the wall through the swirling vortex of dust. He could hear his name being called again and the second he stepped into the storm he felt his magic draining again. He edged along the wall with Sirius behind him until he reached the windows. He mustered up his last ounce of strength and repaired the damage. The hall was suddenly silent again and the wind was once more locked out. Harry fell to his knees and blinked a few times. He didn't know if it was lack of energy or the after effects of watching a vortex but his vision was spinning slightly. He looked up slowly to see who else had been in the hall.

Hermione, Ron, Jenna, Lupin and Arthur.

Hermione had obviously tried to use magic as well because she was slumped against Ron gasping for air.

The wind outside suddenly stopped and everyone held his or her breath, expecting the worst but there was only a soft pattering on the roof.

Sirius let out a dry laugh.

"It's raining" he exclaimed.

"Hermione, what did you do?" Harry asked, trying to focus. Sirius grabbed him under his arms and hauled him to his feet.

"Freeze…I tried to…freeze…it" she gasped.

"Get them to the dining room" Lupin said, pulling out his wand and making a sweeping motion with it. The dust vanished and the group made its way back to the dining room.

Sirius tried to help Harry but he pushed him away. "I can do it," he said. Not sooner had the words left his mouth, though, he staggered sideways into Ron who was trying to support Hermione. Harry let out an insane laugh as Ron and Hermione toppled over.

"He's delirious" Lupin said blankly. Arthur appeared in the fireplace with Dumbledore. Harry hadn't even noticed him leave.

Molly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with Ginny. Both of them looked shaken.

"What happened?" she and Dumbledore said simultaneously.

"I'll get some chocolate," Lupin muttered.

"Bring some rum!" Harry called after him. Hermione had lost complete consciousness and Ron was trying to wake her.

Dumbledore whispered something to Arthur who nodded and disappeared into the fire again.

Dumbledore grabbed Harry by his shirt and pulled him to his feet.

"He wants to kill me," Harry murmured, trying to stare Dumbledore in the eye.

"Do you know why, Harry?"

But Harry didn't answer; he'd just noticed Lupin reappear with a block of chocolate and a small bottle of brandy. Harry held his hand out for it and Lupin handed it to him.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Molly asked, pursing her lips as Harry attempted to undo the lid.

"Fermented liquid is a good form of waking someone up, Molly" Dumbledore explained, taking the bottle and opening it for Harry. "Though chocolate is preferred by many people because alcohol can make the recoveree dizzy, it has a much stronger effect and I think that's what Harry and Hermione need until Severus can make the potion"

"What potion" Harry tipped the bottle up and let it drain into his stomach. Sirius had to pull it away to make him stop and, just as Dumbledore had said, he felt slightly dizzy and extremely happy.

Arthur reappeared with Snape who took one look at Harry and Hermione before conjuring up a cauldron and a set of ingredients.

"Voldemort needs to know" Harry informed Dumbledore in a whisper.

"No he doesn't" Dumbledore answered, forcing Harry to sit before moving across the room to help Snape who was already half finished with the potion.

Molly bit her lip before going back to the kitchen to finish cooking.

Lupin had just revived Hermione with a few sips of brandy and she was sitting against the wall giggling feebly.

"Should it have that much effect?" Sirius asked, frowning as Lupin put the bottle on the table.

"Yes. Because she is already weak, her body will accept anything. I'm not sure how it works but it does. No, Harry" Harry had been reaching for the brandy and Lupin snatched it out of his reach and put it on top of a cabinet.

"Give him this, Remus" Dumbledore handed Lupin a cup of bubbling yellow glop.

Lupin forced it down Harry's throat and suddenly he felt wide-awake. He felt like running, or doing something stupid. He began wringing his hands and looking everywhere around the room.

"You gave him to much" Snape said, smirking as Harry began tapping his feet on the ground. "Her to"

Lupin had just given Hermione the potion and she was behaving in much the same manner as Harry.

"Tell me, Harry…" Dumbledore started as Snape packed his potion things away.

"It started as a breeze it got harder and broke my window and when I repaired it, he started sucking my magic so we went downstairs where he'd broken more windows and Hermione had tried to freeze it so it drained her and I repaired those windows and it took more of my magic and it wants to kill me because I make it stronger and it wants my energy and I really, really need to go for a run" Harry said all this in one breath and Dumbledore was taken aback.

"Ok" he said slowly as Hermione began laughing. "I think I've got all I need…I think you better let them out for a run or they'll never get to sleep tonight"

Harry and Hermione took that as a sign to leave and they jogged down the hall and out the door into the rain.

They ran several laps around the block until they both began to calm down. They were soaking wet when they returned home. Sirius was waiting at the door with towels and they dried themselves off before joining Ron in the living room. They watched one of the latest star wars movies until Molly called them for dinner.

"Shouldn't we wait for Draco?" Hermione whispered to Harry as they entered the dining room.

"He's doing his apparition test. He'll be here soon, don't worry"

Draco Malfoy arrived about halfway through dinner and greeted everyone cheerily before sitting in the only empty seat next to Hermione. She was still wearing her bikini and short skirt and she gave her boyfriend a small smile as he sat down.

"Hello, Hermione" he said shortly and Hermione wondered for a brief second if he was mad at her then she realised he was putting it on because Molly was watching them.

"Did you have a good summer?"

"It was fine" she replied just as blankly, picking sulkily at her peas. Across the table Harry was watching them with a smirk, a piece of chicken halfway to his mouth.

They ate peacefully for a while, Hermione trying hard to listen in on the small talk that was going around but all she really wanted to do was kiss the blonde boy beside her.

A few seconds later she felt a hand slide across her thigh. She felt shivers rush up and down her spine and she forced herself to keep eating.

The hand started to pull her skirt up and she slapped it away playfully with a meaningful look at Malfoy. He raised an eyebrow and tried again. This time she hit him away more forcefully. He frowned slightly then, seeing her blush, grinned and pounced on her, his lips crashing down apon hers.

"Oh!" Mrs Weasley dropped the bowel of peas as the two teenagers fell off their chairs.

Harry, Sirius and Ginny laughed and Lupin and Arthur even inputted a small smile each but Jenna and Ron both looked slightly disgruntled.

Hermione pushed Malfoy away and stood her chair up.

"Sorry" she gasped, blushing a deep crimson and staring at her plate. Slowly everyone went back to their meals and Hermione put her head close to Malfoy's so they could talk.

"What did you do that for?" she whispered furiously.

"Well if you weren't such a dick tease…"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Look what you're wearing! I couldn't resist"

"I don't know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult"

"It's a compliment! I missed you so much over the summer"

"I missed you to"

"We should 'talk' later tonight"

Hermione pulled away from him and stared. He raised an eyebrow and she instantly knew that he meant sex. She looked down at her plate, wondering if she was ready for it. She guessed she was because she'd been fantasising about it all summer but now that the choice was put in front of her…

"Desert will be about half an hour," Molly announced when everyone had finished eating.

The residing teenagers dispersed to places of the rest of the house. Hermione went up to her room to put a shirt on. Malfoy followed her in and locked the door behind him to avoid intrusions.

"So are you going to talk or not?" he asked, sitting on her bed as she rummaged through her trunk.

"If you mean talk as in sex…" she straightened up to look at him and he nodded ever so slightly. She continued to rummage. "I don't know…"

"I'm not pressuring you, Hermione. If you don't want to then I'll wait"

"I know" she pulled on a red tank top and sat down beside him. He put his arms around her waist and they sat quietly for a few minutes until someone banged on the door.

It was Jenna.

"What?" Hermione asked in a harassed voice.

"The red-headed lady told me to come and see what you were doing" Jenna answered stoutly, pushing the door wider and peering in at Malfoy, watching with mild interest, from the bed.

"Why would she send you?" Hermione asked, looking Jenna up and down with distaste.

"Because Harry wouldn't" Jenna replied smugly

"Well you can tell her we're not doing anything" Hermione made to slam the door but Jenna held it open with her foot.

"This is my room to, you know" she informed Hermione with a superior look.

"Fine, we'll leave" Draco was at her side in an instant and they wandered back downstairs together.

"Who was she?" Draco asked, glancing back at Jenna who watched them leave from a crack in the door.

"Sirius' love child" Hermione said shortly before stopping him at the bottom of the stairs. "You have a room to yourself. Come and get me when everyone's asleep"

"Hermione, we don't…"

But she cut him off. "Just come and get me"

Harry came into the hallway rubbing his scar.

"Harry, did Molly try and make you come and spy on us?"

"No" he replied, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, watching Jenna standing at the top of the staircase, peering at them through the railings. "But she and Sirius are having a massive fight about teenage rights. Brace yourselves; I think we're in for a lecture later. Why did you ask that, anyway?"

"Because Jenna came looking for us because she said Molly told her to."

Harry took out his wand and sent a stream of harmless sparks at the intruding girl. Jenna jumped up and began to yell.

"DAD! DAD, HARRY WAS ATTACKING ME!"

"Jeez, keep your voice down!" Ginny poked her head out of the living room door and glared at Jenna. "I'm trying to get the baby to sleep."

Jenna glared back for a moment before running back along the hall to her room.

"What a bitch" Harry muttered as Sirius appeared behind him.

"Harry, I told you not to use magic on…"

"I was only scaring her away" Harry rolled his eyes and followed Hermione and Draco back into the dining room.

_I am a dead set review whore so please review! Please, please, please!_


	5. fast cars and sex

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 5 

Fred and George had arrived and were throwing butterbeer bottles to each other, much to their mothers distaste.

"Catch!" Fred turned as Harry entered the room and tossed a bottle at him. Fred and George took great joy in amusing themselves by testing Harry's skills. Harry froze the bottle in the air by merely raising a hand and sent it flying back at Fred who caught it in one hand with a grin.

"You have learn well, my disciple" Fred said in a deep voice that sounded very much like Dumbledore.

Molly emerged from the kitchen carrying a huge pot of pudding. Lupin and Ron were behind her each carrying other forms of desert.

Harry, Hermione, Draco, Fred, George and Sirius sat down with Lupin, Molly and Ron.

Arthur, Ginny and Jenna joined them moments later and they all tucked in, chatting happily to their neighbour.

"I believe Hermione has some exciting news for us?" Lupin said when they had almost finished. His eyes sparkled as Hermione blushed. Everyone turned to stare at her.

"Err…I got head girl at Hogwarts this year" she informed them timidly.

The occupants of the table broke into tumultuous applause and cheers as Harry pulled a bottle of Champaign from beneath his chair. He and Lupin had obviously planned it.

"Oh, we don't have a corkscrew!" Molly said as Sirius gave everyone a crystal wine glass.

"I'll get it" Harry offered, jumping up and running to the kitchen. Just as he was about to leave he noticed Sirius' liqueur cabinet still open on the wall. A tall, flat bottle of tequila caught his eye and he picked it up slowly.

"Come on, Harry!" Lupin called from the dining room.

"Coming!" Harry shoved the bottle in his pocket and ran back to his seat. Sirius popped the Champaign bottle and poured everyone a glass, including the delighted teenagers.

When everyone had a glass of the bubbly substance Lupin raised his own and everyone followed suit.

"To Hermione, may she be the best head girl Hogwarts has had the honour to see"

"To Hermione!" everyone else chorused before drinking to her.

The talked and laughed for a little longer before Molly cleared the table with a sweep of her wand. Everyone went their separate ways while Harry stayed at the table, debating whether to put the stolen bottle of tequila back when he over heard part of Sirius and Molly's argument.

"…They're teenagers, Molly! It's in their nature to have sex!"

"In my day we didn't have sex until after marriage!"

"Well we aren't in those days anymore. I don't want you spying on Hermione and Draco all night! As far as I know, they've been quite steady for a six months."

"Fine! I wont but I want you to give Draco the 'talk', God knows his father hasn't, Harry too, Lupin told me he has a girlfriend…"

"Fine. What about Ron?"

Molly let out a light snort.

"Ron? Why would he need the talk? He's still my little boy and even if he did want to…you know… go further, he's responsible enough…"

Harry stifled a laugh and left the room. Sirius was right behind him, a smirk spread across his face.

"I hope you heard that, Harry" he said as the two of them went upstairs. They stopped to let Hermione, Jenna and Ginny past as they obeyed Molly's summons for help in the kitchen.

"I did. Ron a little boy? I doubt it"

Sirius went up the next flight of stairs to his room while Harry entered his own. Ron and Malfoy were in there checking out all Harry's muggle belongings with the deepest interest.

"What's this, Harry?" Ron asked, pointing to his stereo. Harry picked up a remote control and hit a button. Metallica blared from the speakers and Ron and Draco jumped about a mile. Harry turned the music off.

"Metallica" he informed them. Ron looked as if he was about to faint. Sirius entered the room and tossed a handful of condoms on the bed.

"Molly has informed me that I am to give you the 'talk'" Sirius grinned as Harry and Malfoy scrabbled for the little green packages. Ron held back a little with a look of envy in his eyes.

"Use them because you don't want to end up with a kid like Ginny and Dean…or me," he added before he left. Harry tossed his handful of condoms in his top drawer while Malfoy put his in his pocket.

"That was extremely fulfilling" Malfoy exclaimed, searching through Harry's cupboard.

Ron and Harry laughed.

They waited a while before going back downstairs and when they did they found Molly in a deep discussion with the girls.

Molly shooed them away and they soon found themselves sitting, quite bored, in front of the Television.

"Harry?" Sirius called from the hallway before coming into the dark room. "Harry, Kingsley is here. He wants to talk to you about your car"

Harry, desperate to talk to anyone, jumped up and followed Sirius into the hallway and found Kingsley leaning against the door.

Kingsley waited until the coast was clear before leading Harry outside.

"Today's the last day of the summer and the last day of your cease fire" Kingsley informed him dutifully. Harry nodded, wondering what this had to do with his car. "So…I thought I'd take you to a race. Tonks is racing and I thought it'd be a good one to watch if you ever decide to take it up"

"Sure" Harry said eagerly, opening his car door and getting in. Kingsley grinned at his enthusiasm and jumped in the other side.

It took them twenty minutes of speeding before they reached the designated racetrack; a two-mile straight that ran across the London Bridge.

It was just as Harry had seem in the movies; hundreds of specially designed race cars lined up along the sides of the road, racers and spectators exchanging money and car information, lookouts on the tops of buildings looking for cop cars and barriers blocking side streets.

Harry edged through the crowd until he found a parking space between a green BMW and a Ford Mustang.

Kingsley then led him, on foot, towards the starting line.

"What you do is, every racer decides on a price, usually one thousand or more and they give it to Rove, that's the beefy guy over there. If you don't have any money and you still want to race, or your feeling daring, you can put in the green slip for your car. There's no fair way of racing like this so you just have to accept it if you lose. There's Tonks over there"

Tonks was leaning on her pink car bonnet talking happily to one of the other racers. There were four cars racing which meant, if Tonks won, she'd take home three thousand dollars and a Mitsubishi Lancer.

"That's Samuel" Kingsley whispered, pointing to the boy Tonks was talking to, he was also the owner of the Lancer. Samuel looked only slightly older than Harry with a wiry figure and hollow green eyes. "Sam hasn't lost a race in over four months. He's one of the best out there, except Tonks. This is her first race against him and everyone is counting on her to win"

Now that he had that piece of information, Harry noticed that Samuel was looking a little nervous while Tonks was acting as if it was any old day.

"Harry!" she said delightedly when they reached her side. She pointed at Samuel's fiery orange car. "I'm going to win that for Lupin. God knows he needs a new one…"

Samuel made a face and got in his car.

"It's about to start, Tonks" Kingsley informed her after receiving a wave from one of the lookouts. Tonks got in her car and started the engine. Flames spurted from the exhaust pipe and Kingsley and Harry backed away slowly. The other two drivers entered their cars and the crowd fell into a hushed silence as four neon lights, two orange, one green and one pink, blazed out from beneath the engines.

"Go Sammie!" A girl beside Harry screamed. Harry noticed, a little disgusted, that she was only thirteen.

All of a sudden an air rifle was sounded and the cars shot off down the road at the speed of a bullet. Harry watched them until they rounded a corner before running back to his car with Kingsley to take a short cut to the finish line. Not many other drivers knew of the shortcut they took because there was only a scattering of cars behind them as they reached the finish line, situated just past the London Bridge.

Harry had just parked his car again when two cars, neck in neck, became visible from across the bridge.

"GO TONKS!" Harry yelled, jumping on the bonnet of his car so he could see properly over the screaming crowd.

Tonks seemed completely at ease and as they drew into the last hundred metres she hit the gas and roared off ahead of her opponent, beating him by almost fifty metres.

"Give us a challenge next time, will you, Sammie?" Tonk drawled as the beaten Samuel reluctantly handed over his car keys and her other winnings before setting off down the street, hands in pockets.

"Can you get this home?" Tonks asked Kingsley, throwing him the Lancer's keys. Kingsley caught them in one hand before giving her a winner's hug. Suddenly, on the rooftops above, somebody started screaming.

"COPS! WE GOT A SHIT LOAD OF COPS!"

Harry didn't need to hear it twice. In a flash he was back in his car and starting the engine. He didn't know where he was to go but the sound of Sirens behind him made him panic. He slammed the gear stick forward and took off amongst all the other fleeing cars. He could see Kingsley up ahead in the Lancer and tried to follow him but cars were continuously cutting across his path and he soon found himself quite alone. He glanced in the rear-view mirror as he sped along a highway behind a yellow Mazda. He could only just see the police lights flashing on the horizon behind him and he began to relax and enjoy the dangerous chase.

It wasn't long before a yellow Lamborghini drew up along his right as the driver beckoned for him to wind down his window.

"Follow me, Harry!" George called before pulling in front of him and taking a sharp left down an empty street. Harry followed him for a short while before realising that there was a short line of cars, possibly other of George's minions, behind him. Up front, George lowered his speed to just above the legal limit as he turned down yet another empty street and flashing his lights. 'The pit stop' loomed into view, it's doors wide open so the line of cars could file in for hiding. Frank and Razza slammed the huge rolling doors shut and signalled for the drivers to turn off their headlights as the sirens of a police car passed by on the quite street outside.

It wasn't until all siren noises had faded completely from the still night air that Razza took the liberty of turning on the four spotlights, situated in each high corner of the shed.

Harry was now able to see that six cars had managed to fit into the shed leaving plenty of space left over. Slowly, adrenaline pumping top-speed through his veins, he opened his door and got out. A wave of relief swept over him when he noticed that both Tonks and Kingsley had managed to get into the hiding place. They seemed equally relieved to see him as they exited their own cars and hurried over to him.

"What did you think, Harry?" Tonks asked, grinning feebly and running her fingers through her copper coloured hair.

"It was great" Harry breathed, imitating her by running his fingers through his own hair. "I can't wait for the next one"

They laughed before fading off to converse with some of the other drivers about the race. Harry took the moment to ask George a few things.

"Is it ok if I leave my car with you while I'm at school?" he asked, helping his boss check the engine of an Italian girls car that was damaged in the 'great escape' as Harry now referred to it in his mind. "It's just that I don't exactly trust the people I'm living with to take good care of it"

"Sure, I was going to ask you to leave it here anyway. I want to do some work on it before you start you great racing career." George grinned impishly and Harry returned it before telling him that Kingsley would drop it off the next morning. He then returned to his car because Frank had just given the all clear and everyone was slowly starting their cars and leaving.

Harry, Tonks and Kingsley had a mock race on the way home, which resulted in Kingsley winning because he used his nitrogen. Tonks took the liberty of tying with Harry as they pulled up outside the darkened Grimmauld place.

The first thing they heard when they walked in the door was Molly screeching in the dining room.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE HARRY IS?"

There was a murmured response from Sirius as Harry Tonks and Kingsley paused outside the door to listen.

"YOU LET HIM GO OUT WITH KINGSLEY? YOU KNOW WHAT A BAD INFLUENCE HE IS ON THE CHILDREN. HE PROBABLY TOOK HARRY TO ONE OF THOSE DANGEROUS RACES HE'S ALWAYS GOING TO!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kingsley said angrily, bursting into the room with Harry and Tonks behind him. "All I was doing was tying up some loose ends with Harry about the maintenance of his car while he was at school. I'm sorry it took so long but he wanted to say goodbye to his mates at work! Isn't that right, Harry?"

"Uh, yeah" Harry replied, he'd just realised that the bottle of tequila was still in his pocket. He'd have to figure out where to hide it if he ever got a moment to himself.

"I told you, Molly" Sirius said calmly, though he seemed relieved by the fact that Harry had finally returned. "He was just dealing with his car"

"Fine. I'm sorry I was concerned about Harry's welfare" Molly said, waving her arms wildly. "It's time for the children to go to bed now though, it's almost midnight and they have school tomorrow!"

Too much groaning and complaining, Molly was able to usher the teenagers out of the room. Harry stayed behind for a moment and watched as Tonks handed the Lancer keys over to Lupin.

"I won you a car," she said, grinning as Lupin smiled.

"I knew you took him racing" was all he said before following Tonks and Kingsley out to look at his prize.

Harry said a final goodnight to Sirius and the twins, the only ones left in the room, before heading upstairs alone.

Ron was already in the room and in bed. Harry, whilst getting dressed himself, told Ron, in full detail, about the run from the cop cars then he turned the lights out and got into bed.

He woke about an hour later to a silent house except…there was a creaking noise outside his bedroom on the loose floorboard. Harry groaned inwardly when he realised Mrs Weasley was pacing the corridor outside, waiting for Draco or Hermione to sneak out. He let her do two more laps before slamming his door open and catching her in the act.

"Do you mind?" he asked, putting on an angry tone. "People are trying to sleep and they cant if you're snooping around the house!"

"Oh, sorry, Harry!" she said, withdrawing slightly as Harry closed the door again. She did one more lap before heading upstairs to her own bed.

In the next room, Draco let out a sigh of relief as he heard Harry raging at the motherly woman. He knew he couldn't do it himself as she would become suspicious but because Harry had done it…. As he listened to her walk upstairs he rolled over in the large bed and opened a drawer in the bedside cabinet before extracting a condom and placing it beside his extinguished lamp. He waited a few more agonising minutes, giving Molly time to get to sleep, before casting a silencing spell on the room and leaving to get his girlfriend.

Hermione woke to having Draco's lips pressed gently against hers. In complete silence, he helped her up and they tiptoed towards the door. Jenna snuffled in her sleep and rolled over. Hermione looked back fearfully but Malfoy pulled her gently out the door and down the hall, expertly missing the loose floorboard.

The main hazards over with, Hermione began to worry slightly. Would Draco wear a condom? Would she have to ask him to? What if he said no, or assured her he would pull out? Should she trust him on that? Should she do it at all?

The first thing she saw though, and with a huge sigh of relief, was the green wrapper sitting on his bedside table, glinting lustily in the moonlight. Now she had other things to worry about. What if she had an abnormality in her nipple or somewhere else? Would he laugh? Keep it a secret? Tell his friends? What if he didn't fit?

Malfoy could feel her hesitancy as he laid her back on the bed. He pulled away from her with a small frown.

"I'm not pushing you into this if your not ready, Hermione" he said sternly.

"I'm ready" she assured him and slowly began to undo her shirt buttons, revealing a black leather bra that she had bought for the occasion. And as she watched a look of ecstasy ignite in his elegant grey eyes, she pulled him close and whispered teasingly in his ear.

"_Happy birthday_"

_I am a dead set review whore so please review! Please, please, please!_


	6. old Voldy will provoke drinking

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 6 

Almost twenty minutes later, Hermione found herself lying in Draco's bed, tracing lines on his defined chest. They were both still naked and she was reminiscing about the events that had just taken place. It wasn't exactly as she expected; it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would but it was still pleasurable and as she watched the boy beside her, his peaceful face bathed in moonlight, she wondered if he'd liked it to.

Malfoy had his eyes closed and he was breathing was deep and slow but Hermione knew he was still awake by the small smile that played across his lips, daunting and teasing her until she cracked and leant across to kiss them.

"Have you ever had sex before?" she asked before she could stop herself. Malfoy's smile faded away and he opened his eyes to look into hers.

"Yes" he said, a little sadly, Hermione thought but she didn't say anything. She was a little disappointed that she hadn't been his first like he had been hers but that was something out of her control. "I regret it though, I only did it to look cool around the guys."

Typical.

"When?" Hermione asked, praying that it had been before she'd started liking him.

"When I was fifteen. It was at one of Blaise's parties."

"How old was she?"

"Thirteen, I think, maybe fourteen"

They lapsed into silence after that. He seemed generally upset about the whole affair and Hermione didn't want to press it. After a while he closed his eyes again and began stroking her hair.

"Draco" she blurted out suddenly, yet again unable to control herself. "I…" he opened his eyes again and turned his head to look at her. "I…Love you" she finished, glad that the dark was there to hide her furious blushing. He smiled warmly at her and tightened his hold on her.

"I love you too," he whispered before kissing her so deeply and passionately that it left her gasping for air.

She stayed with him for ten minutes longer before heading back to her own bed, afraid of being caught when morning came.

Harry was woken by Ron the next morning. The redhead was yelling loudly after accidentally dropping a stack of books on his toe. Harry tried to snooze for a few minutes longer but the rest of the house was awake and Laura was screaming downstairs and people were running past his room, unable to miss the squeaky floorboard.

"I'm up" he grumbled to no one in particular, swinging himself out of bed to get dressed.

Molly was serving up a huge breakfast of toast, eggs and sausages when Harry and Ron finally emerged. They ate quickly before hurrying out to pack again. Harry, of course, had already packed and was now standing in the hall, watching the rain pouring down outside over his prized car. Suddenly his scar throbbed heavily and he remembered, with some dread, that Voldemort's cease-fire was over.

"I heard you yell at Mrs Weasley last night" Malfoy came down the stairs behind him with a small smile on his face.

"I thought you might like some time with Hermione" Harry replied, rubbing his scar and turning to his friend.

"Thanks"

"How'd it go?"

"Score. That's all I'm going to say"

Harry grinned as Hermione came out of the dining room and wrapped her arms around Malfoy's waist.

"I'll leave you two alone" Harry muttered and turned away. He ran straight into Jenna who was grinning triumphantly.

"What do you want?" He asked angrily, trying to get past her.

"Thought you'd like to see this" she thrust today's Daily Prophet into his hands and he looked down on the front page in horror. Hermione and Malfoy came to read over his shoulder.

_SCANDAL!_

_We all know that Potter thinks he's above the rest of the wizarding community, _writes Rita Skeeter_, but it seems that he thinks himself above muggle laws as well. Potter was recently caught with old girlfriend Hermione Granger, committing adultery in a muggle area. A few weeks later he was spotted yet again with French student Claire Bonvure who joined him at Hogwarts the previous year. Potter has also been viewed out in public, Drunk, with another Muggle boy. Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Ministry's top Auror, tried to rein Potter in but the boy refused help and…_

Harry didn't need to read anymore; there were three large picture's spread across the page: one of him with Hermione in the tunnel, one with Claire in Diagon alley and one of him on the street with Drew. All there pictures were moving, making it worse by the fact that who ever read this was able to plot his every movement.

"Those bastards" Harry growled, tossing the paper back at Jenna. "Those _Fucking_ bastards!"

"Your with him to?" Malfoy and Hermione started up behind him. "After everything I've sacrificed for you…and you just do this? Bung it on with my mate?"

"He was helping me!" Hermione cried. "I got caught by the police and Harry was just trying to help!"

Malfoy looked over at Harry who looked completely miserable.

"Is it true, Potter?"

"Yes. She robbed a bank. Ask Dumbledore or..."

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Harry flinched visibly as Molly screamed at him from the kitchen. Slowly, bracing himself for a cyclone, Harry trudged through the dining room to the kitchen where Molly, Sirius, Lupin and Arthur were waiting for him.

"What is this?' Molly hissed, jabbing at the picture of him drunk. "You go out with muggle _scum_ like that and get drunk? In public?"

"It was one day" Harry replied wearily. "And Drew's my friend, I'd rather you didn't call him scum, Mrs Weasley"

"I'll call him what I like! The point is you've been out doing stupid things and you need to be punished!"

"I already talked to him about the alcohol thing, Molly" Sirius said softly with a strange look at Harry.

"Yes but what about this?" she pointed at the picture of him and Hermione. "You shouldn't treat girls like that, Harry, it's disrespectful"

"I know but…"

"Then why did you do it?"

"I was helping Hermione out, she…"

"By cheating on your girlfriend? I'm disappointed"

"How do you think I feel?" Harry said, suddenly angry that she wouldn't listen. "Every other day the fucking paper is having a stab at me! Do you think I find it funny? I try and help a friend out of a hard spot and all I get is crap! Because of this Hermione and Malfoy will probably break up and no doubt Claire will never speak to me again! I can't deny the drinking thing but I would never cheat on Claire"

"Its ok, Harry" Molly said quickly, she suddenly looked afraid of him. "I underst…"

"Let me show you" he cut in. "I'll show you what happened!"

"No really, Harry" Molly gave a short, harsh laugh. "It's ok…"

But before she could finish, Harry had forced the memory of his and Hermione's brief kiss into her mind. He then invited Malfoy, who was fuming upstairs, into his head to see it as well.

When it was over, both viewers were quite in thought. Then Malfoy disappeared from Harry's thoughts.

The blonde sat on his bed thinking. They probably were telling the truth about this unlawful kiss but that didn't make him any less mad. They, his friend and girlfriend, had deceived him and now he didn't know what to do.

Hermione knocked softly on the door. "Draco?" she opened the door slowly and stepped carefully into the room. He surveyed her with an emotionless stare as she sat beside him. She'd been crying; there were tear stains down both cheeks and her eyes were red and slightly puffy.

"Tell me what happened," he said blankly, guessing that the only thing to do was to compare their stories. Hermione didn't have as good a memory as Potter but their stories were pretty much exactly the same. "Draco I'm so sorry. If I'd known it would turn out like this then I would have let the cops take me. Is…is there anything I can do?"

He sat quietly for a moment longer before turning to her with a slight smile.

"Kiss me"

It took almost an hour for Harry to convince the adults that he was telling the truth. Each in turn, he had shown them the memory and, each in turn, they had forgiven him. But then there was still the issue of the alcohol. By the time they had pressed the entire story out of him, he was feeling tired and entirely miserable.

This was when the rush began. Trunks had to be taken to the hallway to be loaded into one of two cars making the trip to the station. The house had to be scoured for lost possessions. Molly had to check over each of the leaving students, just for mothering sakes.

Ginny was sobbing hysterically over having to leave her daughter until Christmas, Hermione and Ron were bickering about the Daily Prophet article and Harry got into four separate fights with Jenna; each so violent that someone else had to step in with a wand.

Finally they were loaded into the cars and ready to go. Harry was just starting his car, filled with Ron, Ginny, Lupin and Kingsley, when Sirius came to his window.

"Your not coming?" Harry asked, not really surprised.

"I cant, I'm taking Jenna to the airport" he replied. "I'm sorry"

"That's fine. I'll see you at Christmas, then?"

Sirius, looking suddenly relieved, smiled broadly. "Count on it"

The trip to the station was extremely slow, considering the rain that bucketed down above them. Harry's scar throbbed the whole way there and by the time they had arrived and gone through the barrier, it was practically searing with pain. He pushed it aside carefully, as he had taught himself to do, as he looked around the packed platform, studying each face carefully. It was then that he saw a tall stranger wearing long black robes and a hood that covered their face completely in shadow. They were watching him.

Harry glanced at his guard, most of whom had been on edge since arriving, then excused himself and wandered over to the stranger.

"His name is Abu Kahim" Voldemort said in barely a whisper.

"Huh?" Harry replied, completely confused.

"That thing you resurrected in the desert. His name is Abu Kahim."

"How do you know?"

"That's none of your business, Potter. Here" he thrust a sheet of yellowing parchment into Harry's hand. The moment those spidery white fingers touched Harry's; the boy felt pain burn, not only through his scar, but also through his entire body. He jerked away quickly and Voldemort smirked.

"Give that to Dumbledore the moment you get in those stupid gates."

"I suppose you've joined sides with this…Abu Kahim"

"That's none of your business," he said again. "Just make sure you give it to Dumbledore"

"You're not going to kill me?" Harry asked, a little shocked as his arch nemesis turned to walk away.

"Not today" was all he heard before Voldemort disappeared into thin air. Harry suddenly felt like a weight was lifted from his head. He stared at the spot where Voldemort had disappeared for a moment longer before he was hailed back to the group by Mr Weasley.  
"Who was that?" he asked, trying to sound casual but Harry knew that the whole group was listening intently.

"…No one." Harry replied, deciding not to tell them in case they took the parchment before he could read it.

The train whistle blew loudly and the students said final goodbyes before hurrying to the train.

They found an empty compartment almost immediately and the five of them, Hermione, Harry, Draco, Ron and Ginny, sat down.

Harry listened to their excited chattering for a while before getting up and declaring his intentions of finding Claire.

Once outside in the slim corridor, Harry took out the old parchment that Voldemort had given him and opened it. It was a page torn out of a book and was written in ancient Egyptian script.

A little annoyed that he couldn't read it, Harry stuffed it back in his pocket and set off down the train in search of his girlfriend.

Claire, not having any girlfriends at all, was sitting alone in the very last compartment. She was staring out the window into the pouring rain with a wistful look on her face.

"Claire?" Harry said gently, sliding into the compartment and sitting a safe distance away from her. She looked at him then continued to watch the miserable weather outside.

"Can we talk?" Harry asked after an agonising moment of silence.

"About what?" Claire snapped, turning to face him sharply. "Your finally going to break the news to me that you found someone better? Well I already know, Harry. I saw the paper this morning. I know what's going between you and Hermione"

"Claire…"

"Your just like all the other men I've dated. I'm more than a pretty face you know, Harry, I am an individual and I do feel pain" –she paused for a second before- "you told me you loved me…"

Harry was slightly proud of how she held herself together. She was on the verge of breaking down but she held back her tears. Harry had never seen her do this before. Claire was usually very emotional.

"I do Love you! I still Love you! If it's possible, I probably love you more then ever. Can you just hear me out, please?"

She took this into great consideration before nodding shortly and turning back to the window. Instead of talking, Harry showed her the memory like he had with everyone else. When it was over, she sat quietly, staring at her shoes. Harry moved closer and put a tentative arm around her shoulders. She neither accepted nor rejected his touch and after a moment he pulled away.

"I…I think I need to think about this, Harry" she said quietly. "How do I know your not just putting any old made up excuse in my head?"

"You don't. You just have to trust me. I trusted you, remember?" he lifted a hand and touched the spot on her shoulder where he knew the dark mark was. She winced slightly but didn't say anything. Harry felt an overwhelming amount of emotion filling his chest.

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"No, Harry" she gave him a small smile. "I just need some time alone to think. I'll talk to you at dinner, ok?"

Harry nodded and kissed her softly on the forehead before going back to his own compartment. Ron and Malfoy had prefect duties to attend to and Hermione had gone to suss out the head boy, leaving only Ginny waiting for Harry to return.

They talked a while about Ginny's summer with Laura before Ginny attacked Harry with a surprise question.

"Who was that man, Harry? At the train station?"

"No one!" Harry lied earnestly. Ginny gave him a dubious look.

"You wouldn't just talk to anyone. I know you, Harry. Who was he?"

"…Voldemort" he finally gave in with a sigh. Ginny's eyes widened in horror and she automatically moved away form him.

"He had to tell me something about that desert demon" Harry explained, pulling out the old parchment and handing it over. Ginny looked at it then gave Harry a confused look.

"I can't read it," she said, handing it back. "Maybe Hermione…"

"No!" Harry grabbed her arm quickly and she winced slightly as Claire had done. Though this was more fear then Claire's pain. "Nobody can know. He gave me that to give to Dumbledore and the last thing I need is Hermione confiscating it. Your not to tell a soul."

Ginny agreed quickly as Hermione returned.

"It's Ernie Macmillan," she said with a small smile. Harry and Ginny smiled back. They must have looked guilty because Hermione gave them each a suspicious look before demanding that they tell their secret.

"We're dealing drugs" Harry said on impulse, not sure why he chose something so unbelievable as drugs. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.

"Fine, don't tell me"

Ron and Malfoy came back when half the train ride was over. Ron challenged Harry to a game of chess while Draco turned to close the door. Before he could sit down, the door slid open again and Pansy Parkinson entered. She stepped right up to Draco and gave him a seductive smile. She didn't even bother to acknowledge the Gryffindors who were watching with looks of disgust.

"Do you like my hair, Draco?" she simpered, brushed a few strands away from her face. She'd dyed it a golden blonde with random pink hair extensions through it.

"Look" she said, picking up the closest extension and tapping it with her wand. It slowly changed to gold, then green, then blue, then black, then orange before back to pink. "Cool, huh?"

"Its…nice" Malfoy said with a slight smirk. The train suddenly jolted as some unknown creature raced across the tracks. Pansy was flung further into the compartment and Malfoy caught her under the arms. This left them with an inch or so between their faces and they simply stared at each other.

The present Gryffindors watched in silence. Harry held Hermione by the wrist to stop her hitting the Slytherin girl as Pansy leaned into Draco, eyes closed, waiting patiently for a kiss. Malfoy let her drop to the ground as he stepped away, looking both amused and horrified.

"You'd better leave, Pansy," he said, smirking as she composed herself.

"I'll talk to you later" she mumbled, bringing the seductive smile back to her face before leaving.

The rest of the train ride went by quietly and it wasn't until they were entering the great hall that Harry wondered when to give the note to Dumbledore. Voldemort had said straight away but he couldn't exactly go waltzing up to the staff table now that the sorting had started.

Harry tried to listen to the sorting hats song but he found it hard to concentrate through the gentle throbbing of his scar. He pushed the pain aside when the first first-year, a girl called April Abraham, was sorted into Gryffindor.

McGonagall worked her way effortlessly down the list until she reached the Ds.

"Diggory, Malcolm" she said quietly after a pause. Harry's head snapped up and he watched the small blonde boy stagger over to the hat.

It was only when the hat declared him a Hufflepuff that Harry realised that the whole student body had been holding its breath. As the boy walked past his table, Harry noticed he looked exactly like his older brother.

Images of Cedric's still, dead body flashed through his mind and Harry was reminded forcibly of the night in the cemetery.

"Are you ok, Harry?" Claire asked, touching his arm gently. Harry's eyes snapped open and he looked around the hall. The sorting was over and Claire had come to sit next to him.

"Just a headache" he mumbled and focused his attention on Dumbledore who was standing up making the usual start of term speech. The forest was out of bounds, congratulations to the new head boy and girl, welcome to the first years, List of confiscate able items posted on Filch's door, and welcome to the new defence against the dark arts teacher, Professor Tweed.

Tweed was a young ministry official with long blonde hair tied back in a knot and a stern look apon her face.

Harry guessed, as the feast arrived, that she was here on his account. Someone had to spy on him.

Harry snuck a glance at the staff table as he loaded his plate with pork chops and found that Dumbledore was watching him with a curious expression on his worn face.

Harry turned back to his food and began to eat, thinking longingly of the bottle of tequila stashed away in his trunk upstairs.

Suddenly his head burst open as Voldemort's voice entered.

"Did you give it to him?" He asked as Harry knocked his fork off the table as he fought for control of his mind.

"No"

"Well give it to him. NOW!"

The last word vibrated around Harry's head, causing him excruciating pain, before Voldemort disappeared and the hall came into focus again.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione asked, staring at him from across the table. Ginny was staring at him to but she seemed to have a knowing look on her face.

"Nothing" Harry lied, fetching his fork from under the table and dropping it on his plate before getting to his feet.

"I have to talk to Dumbledore"

Dumbledore, who had been watching Harry the whole time, was slightly shocked to see the boy walking determinedly towards him.

Harry, ignoring the stares of his fellow students, found that he was shaking uncontrollably as he climbed onto the stage and stood in front of Dumbledore.

"Come with me" Dumbledore said as Harry opened his mouth. The headmaster had just noticed Tweed listening to them intently.

Dumbledore led him into the little side room and Harry handed him the parchment.

"From Voldemort" Harry said in a tired, slow voice. "I spoke to him at the station and he told me to give it to you"

Dumbledore frowned at him a moment before unfolding the parchment and scanning the ancient writing.

"Abu Kahim?" he said, more to himself than Harry.

"Good, you can read it." Harry glanced at the pictures watching them from the walls. "What does it say?"

"Dust demon, Abu Kahim lives purely on magical energy. He is blind to wizards and will only absorb magic from the air if a spell is cast. It will them proceed to suck the witch or wizard dry and leave them mostly dead. It is not known how Abu Kahim was killed but the Egyptians have not spoken of him for over two thousand years. All that is known about the Egyptian demons death is that a great force was involved. The force is also unknown."

Dumbledore looked at Harry before tucking the parchment into a pocket inside his robes.

"I suggest you go back to dinner, Harry, I will try and sort this out. Remember to keep your mind blank against the enemy"

Harry nodded glumly and went back to the hall.

Dinner couldn't have gone any slower. By the time Harry made it to the Gryffindor boys dorm he was feeling old and exhausted.

As he changed into his Pyjamas he noticed the glass tequila bottle glistening in the candlelight. Harry glanced at his roommates before tucking the bottle under his pillow and getting into bed.

It didn't take long for his fellows to fall asleep. They were content and full of food. Harry's head still pained him and even though he tried, he couldn't shut his eyes. Carefully he eased the bottle into view and stared at it before opening it quietly and pressing it to his lips.

He drank until he passed out.

Each week for a month Harry's problem got worse.

On the first week it was simply drinking before bed, like he had done a Drew's. Then he started drinking when he woke up. After that he began carrying a small flask around with him to drink between classes. This was also when he became isolated and stopped eating. He wouldn't talk to his friends and would avoid breakfast, lunch and tea all together.

By the fourth week he was skipping classes because he had passed out on his bed.

Hermione would try and talk to him in the hallways but he would brush her off by saying he forgot something. Finally she just gave up.

He had become pale and thin and the muscles he had worked so hard for over the summer were fading away.

On the first Friday of October Harry found himself sitting alone in his Dorm; the flask balancing on his knee and the latest daily prophet in his hand. He didn't read it. He was to smashed to read it but some of the important words popped up at him.

"-Dust demon-", "-Great winds blowing through London-", "-Muggles panicking-", "Magic drained at incredible rates-","-Ministry stumped-" and "-calling for Harry Potter. Is this the work of a madman or a boy desperate for attention?"

There was a knock on the door and Harry quickly tossed the flask into the messy folds of his blankets.

"What?" he asked angrily, watching Claire step into the room. He hadn't spoken to Claire for over a week and he had the impression that she didn't want to talk either, until now.

"I just want to talk to you," She said, sitting beside him and smiling kindly.

"About what?"

But she didn't answer. She'd just spotted the silver flask poking out from beneath his quilt.

Harry noticed this and, with a quick glance at each other, they both lunged for it. Claire, being the sober one, got it firmly in her hand and made a well-calculated dash at the window.

"Don't!" Harry grabbed her wrist with one of his invisible hands and pulled her hand away from the window.

"Let it go!" he stood up slowly as she dropped it deftly into the other hand and tossed it out the window.

"Claire!" Harry ran to the window but all he could do was watch his flask fall with a dainty plop into the lake.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he rounded on his offending girlfriend.

"It was killing you, Harry!" she screamed, not cowering in the least. Most people would back away from Harry when he got angry but today she stood her ground. "You're killing yourself!" she lowered her voice a little and took a step closer to him. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

"Why do you care? No one cares"

"That's really selfish, Harry. Of course people…"

"See that's just it!" he swung around and sent the water jug smashing to the ground. Claire didn't wince. She barely even blinked. "I'm not aloud to be selfish! Everyone else is. And that's just petty selfishness. I hate myself, Claire, like you wouldn't understand!" he smashed Dean's lamp with his fist. "I don't really have any friends. In the end it all comes down to Voldemort." He smashed a window. "I try and do something right and it just blows up in my face! I get a cease-fire with Voldemort and everyone thinks I've turned evil. I go out to have a good time with a mate and people think I have alcoholic problems! I try and help Hermione out of a tight spot and suddenly I'm cheating on my girlfriend! And it doesn't help that some bitch shows up at my house and screws over my whole fucking chance at having a normal life. And instead of killing her, which I was close to doing, I resurrect some demon from the past who nobody knows how to kill!"

He fell down on his hands and knees. "And do you know what the worst part is? If Voldemort and this Demon join together, everyone will expect me to deal with it. And if I cant then the whole bloody world is screwed."

He finally broke down and couldn't say any more. Claire knelt quietly before him and pulled him close. He rested his head on her warm chest and cried.

"I don't think we should see each other anymore, Claire," he said quietly after a long time of just sitting there.

"Why? You told me you loved me," she reminded him.

"I do, Claire. I love you so much and its killing me inside…but I'm dangerously unstable and If you got hurt then I don't know how many innocents will have to face the consequences."

"I'm not letting you break up with me. I knew when we started dating that it could be risky but you're the person I feel safest around. I know you wont hurt me. Its not in your nature."

They sat curled in each other's arms for a short time longer then Claire stood up and brushed herself off.

"Are you coming to dinner?" she asked and Harry crawled across the floor to repair the things that he broke in his rage.

"Later" he promised and she left.

_Please review!_


	7. Rehab will fix it!

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 7 

But he didn't go to dinner. Instead he went and sat by the lake. He didn't think he could face the other students, not tonight at least. And it had been so long since he had eaten, he'd probably forgotten how. So he whiled away the time by throwing rock in the lake.

Draco tried to enter his mind to talk to him a few times but Harry rudely blocked him out and continued to drown in his misery. He slowly began to sober up and the hangover pain was burning horribly in his head. He also began to think. He hadn't thought clearly about anything except alcohol and that was hurting him to.

Suddenly a tall blonde man appeared beside him.

"Salazar" Harry acknowledged the god in a bored, spaced out voice.

"Dumbledore wishes to speak with you, Harry," he said in an equally bored voice.

"Do I have to?"

The god smiled slightly. "Yes you do. I think it might be quite rewarding" then he shimmered away into nothing. Harry stared at the spot where the god had just been for a second before heading back to the castle. There was a few lingering students in the entrance hall and they stared at Harry as he wandered past.

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk when Harry showed up.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked dully.

"Come and sit down, Harry" Dumbledore spoke without looking up. Harry stepped over to the desk and sat quietly in the waiting chair.

"Claire has just been to see me" Dumbledore had finished his letter and was now watching Harry intently. Harry didn't say anything. He should have expected this.

"Could you tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong" Harry lied. "Is that all you wanted?" he made to stand up but Dumbledore stopped him.

"Are you worried that Voldemort and Abu Kahim will join forces?"

"Not really. Abu Kahim doesn't seem like the type of person – or thing – that would take followers but we're screwed if they do"

Dumbledore nodded.

"Tell me, what was your summer like living with Sirius?"

"It was fine until you sent Jenna, on my Birthday, I might add. You have no idea how close I came to murdering them both."

"And did you get the feeling that Sirius stopped caring about you because he found a more intimate family member?"

Harry nodded.

"What about Lupin, from what I heard he was continuously coming to your defence."

"I thought he cared but I finally figured that it was because he hated Jenna as much as I did."

"They do care, Harry, we all do"

"Well that's not the impression I get." Harry could feel anger bubbling in his chest and he didn't do anything to hold it back. "When I left to live with Drew, Lupin came to talk to me by the car. He didn't ask if I needed money or anything like that. Did you know what he asked? What about Voldemort. You have no idea how many people have asked me that. They don't really care about me. It's all about them. If I die then Voldemort wins and everybody dies! I'm just sick of living my life in the extremes! If I'm angry I blow a crater in the ground. If I'm upset I become isolated and depressed. I'm faced with sibling rivalry but instead of petty squabbling I try and kill her. Everybody has enemies, right? Well how many people can say that their enemies have tried to murder them on ten separate occasions! I'm scared of having friends in case I get them in trouble or I end up killing them myself. I feel Voldemort growing inside me more and more each day and I don't know how long I can last before I do actually murder someone!"

Dumbledore sat, processing this information for a long time. It also gave Harry time to cool down.

"How do you feel about Claire? She told me you wanted to break up because you felt dangerous and unstable."

"Claire" Harry said sadly. "You know, I only went out with her in the start to make Cho jealous. Then I had to go and fall in love with her and I just don't know what to do anymore."

"Harry" Dumbledore said suddenly. "What if I was to tell you that I know a place where the people can help you get better"

"Great, you're sending me into rehab."

"Not exactly. There's a special school up north. It's called Oakenshire and it specialises with people, like you, who have too much built up magic. Tokugawa told me last year that your magic stream is all tangled. These people can straighten it out."

Harry's jaw dropped. "There's other people like me out there?"

"Not as many as there used to be, but yes, there are a few. Would you like to come and see it with me tomorrow? You can decide whether you want to go there for a while or not."

"I don't think I should miss out on anymore school, sir" Harry said dubiously.

"Tomorrow is Saturday."

"Oh"

"Nine o'clock tomorrow morning in the entrance hall. I suggest you bring your broom"

Harry nodded and walked towards the door.

"Harry?" Harry paused and turned around. "When was the last time you ate a solid meal?"

"Last week, I think, give or take a few days." He answered after a moment's thought.

"Go down to the great hall now and eat. Don't worry, the other students have finished."

Harry nodded and left.

The great hall was indeed empty but there was a small feast left waiting for Harry at the Gryffindor table. Harry approached it carefully, as if it had the potential to be an enemy.

He sat down in front of it and slowly began loading his plate with food.

But he couldn't eat it. For some reason all he could do was stare at it, as if this would simply send the food to his stomach via teleportation. Finally he picked up his fork and clumsily speared a potato. At the same time, the double doors at the end of the hall opened and Harry dropped the food and fork on the floor.

"Don't worry, Potter, I'm not going to kill you" Malfoy came striding down the hall and planted himself beside Harry.

"What do you want?" Harry asked quietly, though he was quite grateful to see the other boy.

"I'm hungry. I missed dinner 'cause Dumbledore had me out hunting you." He reached over and picked up a pork chop and broke it apart with his fingers before eating. Harry noted this and did the same. After the first swallow, his fear of food seemed to vanish almost instantly and he couldn't stop eating.

The two boys sat until late into the night, talking and eating. It was the first time in a month that Harry had laughed and truly meant it.

When Harry finally retired to the Gryffindor tower he found that the rest of his house had gone to bed. Odd, he thought, Friday nights everyone was usually up getting drunk. Was there something happening the next day that he didn't know about?

At the moment Ron entered the common room from the portrait hole behind him.

"Harry!" he said in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I was just eating" Harry mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck and smiling sheepishly at his friend.

"Great. I wish I could have eaten."

"Why didn't you?"

"I had detention with Tweed since the end of classes until now"

"Why?"

"I got in a fight with Goyle and accidentally turned his face into dog shit. Hermione should be back soon, and Neville, they got detention too."

"Hermione got detention?"

"Yeah, she tried to tell Tweed that it wasn't my fault. Which it wasn't, so she go detention and then Nev tried to get Hermione out of it and well…his detention was even longer."

"Lucky I wasn't there"

"Yeah, Lucky"

Hermione and Neville made a spectacular appearance at that moment.

"You shouldn't have said anything, Neville! That was an idiotic thing to do!"

"Harry would have done it! And you wouldn't be getting up him!"

"Yeah but Harry _is_ an idiot. Right, Harry?"

"Right" Harry grinned. He couldn't believe how much he missed this.

"Hoi, would you lot pipe down? People are trying to sleep!" Ginny's friend Olivier poked her head out the door of the girls' dormitories.

"SHUT UP!" Hermione screeched at her. Harry, Ron and Neville made a run for the door.

Harry was almost late for his appointment with Dumbledore the next morning due to the fact that he had overslept. He got up and began a hurried search for a clean uniform. It was then that He realised his school clothes hadn't been washed in over a week so he quickly pulled on a pair of baggy black jeans and a black shirt with 'Death to those who touch my girlfriend' written across it. He then looked at himself in a mirror and tried to smooth his hair down. His eyebrow ring glinted gaily in the morning sunlight and Harry was reminded briefly of the day he had gotten it.

It had been the Christmas before and he, Malfoy, Ron and Zabini had all subjected themselves to the needles torture. That had also been the day he had gotten Sirius' pet dog, Jill, and the bad boy clothing that he wore now.

With a last sweep of his messy belongings, Harry grabbed his broom and ran from the room.

Dumbledore was standing to one side of the hall, speaking quietly to Malcolm Diggory and one of his friends. Harry paused at the bottom of the stairs and waited for them to finish. He didn't want to speak to the young Diggory, the death of his brother still fresh in his mind.

Dumbledore finally bid the boys good day and strode over to where Harry was standing.

"Are you ready?" Dumbledore smiled slightly as he took in Harry's outfit but he didn't say anything as he led him from the castle and down to Hagrid's hut where a golden carriage, fitted with four Thestrals, was waiting for them.

"Bit feisty today" Hagrid said gruffly, smoothing a massive hand over the closest Thestral. "But once they're up they should calm down"

Dumbledore nodded curtly and thanked Hagrid before ushering Harry into the carriage.

"Oakenshire is at the very top of the country." Dumbledore explained as the carriage took to the sky with a great whoosh. "But the Thestrals are fast so it should only take half of an hour."

Harry nodded and peered out the glassless window. Hogwarts was fading rapidly behind them and they were now flying over rugged countrysides with massive farms containing cows, horses and orchids. Harry leant further out the window and pointed at a long row of fruit trees.

"Accio apple!"

Seconds later he had a juicy red apple in his hand and was smiling triumphantly.

"Do you have to use incantations?" Dumbledore asked interestedly as Harry bit into his prize.

"Not all the time. Sometimes I don't think I'm even using Magic. It's just like raw energy."

"Like when you…explode?"

Harry nodded and took another bite. "And when I attacked Abu Kahim. I attacked him with lightening. I've never done that before." Dumbledore nodded.

"And catching things? Claire told me you grabbed her without touching her at all."

"Oh yeah." Harry looked out the window thoughtfully. "I call it the invisible hand. I'll show you." Harry made his grabbing motion and caught Dumbledore by the wrist.

"Interesting!" Dumbledore said. He smiled and the sparkle in his eyes danced. "I actually learnt the invisible grab when I was your age."

"Cool"

Harry and Dumbledore spent the rest of the trip playing wizards chess using only their invisible forces; a rule Dumbledore made up to strengthen Harry's capability.

Not surprisingly, Dumbledore won.

They reached Oakenshire in record time. Oakenshire was a bit like a barracks. It consisted of a large stone castle, several smaller buildings, fighting arenas and a huge acre of lush green grass. On one side it was guarded by a forest full of ancient trees, thought to be extinct, and on the other side it was backed by the ocean. The rest was held in by a wall, ten meters in height.

The golden carriage landed with a soft thump on the road outside the great arched drawbridge.

The drawbridge came smoothly down, not rattling at all, as Harry had expected, and student and headmaster entered side by side.

"Albus!" a jolly looking man with long white hair and a scruffy little beard approached them, arms open wide. Dumbledore and the man embraced like brothers. "It's about time you came to visit! I haven't seen you since you bought me Tom Riddle!"

Harry's jaw dropped.

"Tom Riddle? Tom Riddle as in Voldemort?"

Dumbledore and the man laughed.

"Harry this is master Jui Hungai. Jui, I've bought you Harry Potter."

Jui nodded wisely.

"Yes I thought you might end up bringing the boy in due time."

Dumbledore and Jui continued to talk about why Harry was here, unaware that their subject of speech had tuned out.

Harry had just spotted two little boys, no older than five, playing with toy cars in a patch of dirt nearby. One had blonde hair and the other had red.

The redhead snatched at the Blonde's car. They tousled for a moment then the blonde exploded, literally.

His entire body caught on fire and he was literally a human fireball. He raised a hand and sent a jet of flames at the redhead.

The redhead was ready with a shield of what looked like water.

"Odd" Dumbledore mused and Harry realised that he and Jui were watching the boys turn into elements with relaxed looks on their faces. "I thought you kept the water away from the fire."

"We found a way for them to play without destroying each other. It's a bit complicated so I wont go into details yet but I'll tell you one thing, it's not healthy to keep them separate because they're different. It'll make them think that the other is the enemy. I believe that's where we went wrong with Tom." Jui smiled slightly as he remembered. "Nathan, Brenton! Come here for a moment!"

"The two children went back to normal in the blink of an eye and abandoned their cars to race each other to Jui.

"Harry this is Nathan" Jui pointed to the blonde. "And Brenton. Boys, how about you show Harry where the Quidditch pitch is? I see he bought his broom and Albus and I need to have a long chat."

The boys each grabbed one of Harry's hands and dragged him in the direction of the castle.

"Oh and Harry!" Jui called after him. "I suggest you keep your guard up. Some of the youngsters around here like to test the strength of the newcomers. Its kind of like a welcoming tradition…"

Harry let the boys pull him across the field while he took in everything around him. Two men stood in a ring, not far off simply staring at each other. A second later one of them was blown off his feet by an invisible force. Harry guessed that they were having a telepathic battle.

Harry heard something shuffling in a shrub to his left and he had only just enough time to bring up a shield before he got hit with a ball of purple fire.

"Don't do that, Ray!" Nathan yelled at a seven-year-old girl who giggled and apperated.

The two boys led him to the edge of a cliff and Brenton pointed across the next field.

There, down below, was the biggest Quidditch pitch Harry had ever seen. It was even bigger than the world cup pitch.

Harry could see several people zooming around it. Not really playing a game, but several small games.

The boys led Harry down a winding track and over to a side door where a girl with purple hair was standing. She had a broom over her shoulder and she watched Harry with narrowed eyes.

"What position do you play?" she asked in a rough, southerly voice.

"Seeker" Harry replied almost immediately. Her face suddenly broke into a grin.

"Great! You can play for our team!" she turned and led him into the change room. "My name is Mandy" she handed him a set of white and gold Quidditch robes and watched as he pulled them on over his clothes.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter!" She looked suddenly delighted. "We've been waiting for you to show up! C'mon, games starting now"

The small games that had been going on had stopped and the flyers were now waiting expectantly in the stands. Other people were filing into the stands from outside and there were two teams on the pitch. One wearing the same robes as Harry, the other wearing Black and silver.

"Make it a clean game, guys" A woman wearing red was standing between the teams with a comet two-sixty hovering beside her. "You all remember what happened last time."

"What happened last time?" Harry asked, though he wasn't really worried. He knew Quidditch was a rough game. He'd just have to deal with it.

"That guy over there" Mandy pointed to a bulky man on the other team, one of the beaters. "He got to angry and blew up the pitch. We all ended up in the hospital with burns."

"You found a seeker? Great. Now the England international Team is here watching. I heard they're looking for fresh players so if you play well they might pick you up." The woman in red pointed to a practically empty part of the stands where four men and two women were watching with keen eyes.

"Mount up!"

Harry straddled his broom and the second the whistle blew he was in the air, zooming around the pitch with the other seeker in close pursuit.

Most of the other players, except Mandy and another girl on their team, looked middle aged and professional players.

The crowd in the stands screamed and Harry looked up just in time to see the other team score.

"Ten nil!" a commentator shouted. "And ball is in possession of Mandy, now Rupert, back to Mandy. And look at that! Black is back in possession with a shifty catching from chaser Bob! No sight of the snitch yet but White has a new seeker. He's riding a Firebolt! Does anyone know who he is?" the commentator paused as someone told him. "I can't believe it! Harry Potter! We have Hogwarts own Harry Potter on the field!"

White scored once while Black scored three more times. Harry was searching the pitch eagerly, loving the feel of the wind in his hair and feeling completely at home. The other seeker was watching Harry carefully when he got a look of sudden excitement on his face and went into a plummet. The crowd gasped and Harry didn't move. He couldn't see the snitch anywhere and he could tell that this guy was faking it. He looked around and spotted the golden ball about ten feet above his head.

He laughed at the other guy's misfortune and went zooming towards the snitch, catching it in his left hand before it even got a chance to put up a good chase.

"He's got it! On his first game! Potter beat Chudley Cannons seeker Bernie Thompson!"

Chudley Cannons? Harry whirled around just in time to duck an aggressive curse fired at him from Bernie.

"Hoi!" Harry shouted angrily. "What the hell was that for?"

Bernie gave him the finger and flew away.

Harry landed on the ground with the rest of the team who congratulated him on his spectacular performance.

"That was great!" Mandy breathed. "We haven't won a game since that cannons guy showed up here!"

"Harry Potter?" Harry turned to find the English team standing behind him. "May we have a word?"

"Uh…yeah, ok" he glanced at the team, which was staring at him in awe, before following the famous players to one side of the pitch.

"We like the way you play, Harry" one of the ladies said, "tell us, how did you know he was faking?"

"I don't know…because he was trying to get my attention before diving, I couldn't see a snitch there and he's just a down right lousy actor."

The lady laughed. "I'm Ruby," she said before gesturing to the other players in turn, starting with the other female. "This is Sarah, she's our second chaser, after me, then there's Bill. He's a chaser as well. Gary and Jay are our beaters and Oliver, our Keeper."

The one called Oliver stepped into the light and Harry got to see him clearly for the first time. His jaw dropped.

"Hows it going, Harry?" Oliver Wood, the former captain of the Gryffindor team stood there, right in front of him, smiling.

"_Wood_?"

"Stop it, Harry" Harry closed his mouth and grinned before giving Oliver a hug.

"You two know each other?" Sarah asked in amusement.

"I used to play with Harry on the Gryffindor team. Told you he was good, didn't I?"

"How long are you here for?" Jay asked. He had a pair of gold wings pinned to his robes, meaning he was team captain.

"Just for today. I'm here with Dumbledore, having a test run."

Jay nodded. "Well I reckon you should come here for a while. This is an exclusive school for only the strongest out there. We come here every year to have a look at the Quidditch players… come back up to the castle, Harry, I need to have a chat to your headmaster."

As they walked back up the cliff towards the castle, Harry found himself walking next to Oliver.

"So who have they got on the team at school now, Harry?" Wood asked as Harry transferred his broom from one shoulder to the other.

"Ron's Keeper. Ginny, Olivier and Colin Creevy are Chasers and they're having tryouts for beaters next week. We don't know who the captain is yet. The season hasn't started. Tell me though, how long have you been playing for England?"

"Half a year." Wood said, a little flushed as they entered the castle.

They didn't have to go very far until the found Jui's office. They went in, single file and when Jui saw Harry he beamed. Dumbledore, however, gave him a questioning look.

"Albus" Jay said, shaking Dumbledore's hand firmly. "We've just been watching Harry play Quidditch and we found his talent quite spectacular."

Harry blushed slightly and Oliver gave him a nudge.

"Our seeker retired a few months ago" Ruby continued. "And we've been searching frantically for one before the season starts. Harry has potential and we want to take him on a test run."

"I see…" Dumbledore said slowly. "Harry, what do you think of this?"

"I'd love to" Harry said breathlessly. He couldn't quite get it around his head that the English Quidditch team, the best team in England, were asking him to join.

"Great" Jay smiled warmly. "Our first game is on Saturday in two weeks against France. Will he be able to make it?"

"I'll make sure he does." Dumbledore smiled and shook each team members hand in turn. "Look after him, wont you, Oliver?" Dumbledore winked as he shook hands with his former student. Oliver nodded solemnly. The team left and Harry was excused to go and explore some more.

He found Mandy in an empty corridor, waiting for him. He told her his news and she jumped up and down, shaking his hand excitedly.

"You wanna come to a charms class?" she asked after showing him a little more of the castle and introducing him to a few people his age.

"Sure" he replied, bringing up a shield as a little redheaded girl tossed a ball of light at him. "Can they just apperate anywhere?" he asked, watching as the girl disappeared with a crack.

"Nah, just inside the grounds. There's a charm on the walls so anyone under fifteen is locked in. everyone else is free to leave when they want, though not many people do. It's great here, really calms the nerves."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm a Metamorphmagus," she informed him, making her hair change to blonde with a small pop.

"I have a friend who can do that," Harry pointed out. "Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks? Yeah, she's my aunt."

"But that doesn't explain why you're here. You shouldn't need help to do that."

"I don't. I'm also partly elemental. I can turn myself to liquid. I kept turning into a puddle and then couldn't turn back, so my father sent me here for a few months."

They reached the designated classroom and Harry was surprised to find that it was filled with only teenagers.

"Only teens need to take classes," Mandy explained quietly as they found seats at the back of the room. "The kiddies are to young to learn magic like this. All they need to do is bond with other magical people. The elders have already done it so the just need to perfect their skills."

"On a Saturday?"

"We only have to come three days a week. On the other days we're supposed to commit to straightening out our magic and stuff like that. Everyone here has a certain skill about him or her. Most of it is elemental. I'm water. Cyril over there is air; he can turn himself into a cloud. His problem is changing back before the wind scatters him. Fire is the most common and easy to handle. Metal is the rarest. There is only one person in the entire school who can do metal. His name is Tobias. He's about twenty-four. He can turn his skin into any kind of metal he wants. He's practically invincible. What's your type?"

"I…don't know" Harry replied.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I have to much magic stored up. I have violent mood swings and when I'm angry I blow up."

"I've never heard of anyone like that before" Mandy frowned. "People here get angry. Really angry. But they've never blown up. Hey…have you ever killed anyone?"

"No!" Harry said, quite shocked. The door opened and a blonde haired man wearing the same robes as Jui entered.

_Great chapter, huh? Please Review!_


	8. Once respectable

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 8 

"Right-o" he said as the class began to quieten down. "I've been getting a lot of requests to learn the ghost knife charm. So today we're going to do it. Wands out."

"Oh goodie!" Mandy whispered gleefully, pulling her wand out. As the teacher, Professor Gordon Harry soon found out, began to coach the class Harry realised that these people weren't really like him. They were only powerful in their elements. They still needed wands to perform spells and they still needed incantations.

Harry quickly mastered the charm with his wand; a flick, a swish and the muttering of the words Cloudus Knifus made several real looking daggers shoot from his wand tip and into the desk in front of him. When he ran his fingers through them they turned to smoke and wafted away.

He soon put his wand down and tried it by using the same movements with his hands.

"How'd you do that?" Mandy screeched, watching in awe as five neatly made knives drove themselves into the table.

"That's how I use magic," Harry muttered as a few people turned to stare.

"Lets see what you can do, Potter" Gordon came striding over to his desk and perched on the edge of it to watch. Harry made the daggers again and looked up just in time to see Gordon's eyebrows shoot into his hairline.

"Wandless magic?" he said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "We haven't seen one of you in quite a few years. Tell me, do you use it much?"

"Not really. I don't like people knowing about it." Harry looked around to see the whole class watching. "When people see it they think I've joined the dark side or, more specifically, Voldemort's side."

Nobody flinched. Not one single soul in the room registered that Harry had used that name. They weren't afraid. For the first time in his life, Harry had been in a room with strangers who didn't shy at the mention of Voldemort.

"Have you been using it for long?"

"Since last Christmas. It's hard to explain how I got it. Some magical force of love and trust or something."

"Have you ever met a god?"

"Uh…" Harry looked around again. By the looks of it, quite a few people had met some form of god or another. "Yeah. But I cant…"

"You can't say it" Cyril said. "I met a god. And I can't say his name to anyone who hasn't met him."

"Right." Harry nodded, completely understanding what he was talking about.

"Ok, everyone back to work. If you get it right today then next time I will be able to teach you how to change the type of knife you throw. Harry…" Gordon leant forward slightly as the rest of the class went back to throwing knives at inanimate objects.

"Have you ever done your… type of magic without any incantations?"

"Sure. I can do things without speaking but I don't know if what I'm doing is magic or not."

"What can you do?"

"Throw lightening…um… some of the more simple spells like summoning from a short distance…oh and I can do an invisible grabbing thing."

"Yes there is a quite few students in this school who know how to do the invisible grab. Can you cast these spells with your mind?"

Harry frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

"You're the most powerful wizard I've come across in a long time. There is very few who can do wandless magic. In fact there is only two wizards under registration. Sometimes, if you practice enough, you can cast a spell by simply using your mind."

"How do I do that?"

"Try casting the ghost knives again. But this time, just imagine that you are doing the movements."

Harry did as he was told, concentrating very hard on seeing his hands move, and his lips, without them even moving at all.

By the end of the lesson he was able to conjure a few puffs of smoke.

"Keep trying, Harry" Gordon said encouragingly as he filed out of the class behind Cyril.

Mandy and Cyril took Harry to the dining hall after that for lunch. The dining hall consisted of three long tables. Two were already filling with Teenagers and adults while the third, slightly smaller than the others, was being filled by children aged three to twelve. Ladies in matching green dresses were assisting the younger children with their food.

"Look at Tobias" Mandy whispered, nudging Harry in the side and pointing to the other table. Harry looked over to see a man with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail raising his hand above a plate of steak. He bought it down and his flesh sliced neatly through the meat. Several people around him clapped as he put an empty butterbeer bottle in front of him and sliced that as well.

"Cool" Harry said, looking around to see what other people were doing. The majority of them were eating lunch eagerly but there were a few people, mainly children, who were doing magic tricks.

When lunch was over Harry followed Mandy, Cyril and their friends, Luke, Tim and Carla down to the oceans edge where the started up a game of kickball. It didn't last very long, though, because Luke accidentally turned the ball into nitric oxide and the six of them had to make a run for it before they were poisoned.

"I thought you learnt to control it!" Carla gasped as they collapsed in a laughing leap further up the beach.

"I did… well I think I did…"

Harry picked up a smooth stone from the sand and held it in his palm. Seconds later it began to levitate. The others watched in awe before scrabbling for their own stones to try the trick.

"Shit!" Mandy said after a about an hour or so of levitating objects. "We're late for Transfiguration!"

The group of teenagers dusted themselves free of sand and headed back to the castle.

Dumbledore, Jui and a strange man with slick black hair and a droopy moustache were waiting outside the main doors for Harry.

"I'll see you later" he muttered to Mandy before focusing his attention on the three men.

"Harry, this is Robin. He's a highly trained psychic." Jui explained. Harry looked the man over. "He'd like to speak to you and hopefully this will give us some insight into how to control your powers."

"Yeah… ok"

"Great!" Robin said and gestured for Harry to follow him into the castle. Harry did so without looking back and soon the two of them were walking along corridors alone. Robin led Harry into a long hall held up with pillars. The walls were covered in framed pictures of all the students who had ever passed through the school. Harry slowed down and began looking at them. Robin waited for him at a door at the other end of the hall.

Harry looked intently at each of the pictures. He recognised none of them until…

"Dumbledore" he said under his breath. He'd found a picture of Dumbledore at about the age of twenty. He had short, auburn coloured hair and the same, sparkling blue eyes. Harry stared at it for a moment, wondering why Dumbledore had come here, before he moved on.

Several pictures down he found the one he was looking for.

Tom Riddle.

Harry tilted his head and stared into the vacant face of the handsome Tom.

He began to wonder if, Had Tom been able to keep his mother, he might have turned out different? Maybe a respectable person. If Voldemort still had his mother would Harry still have his?

"Harry?" Robin's voice, though very gentle, bought Harry back to reality with a jerk.

"Sorry, sir" Harry mumbled and, with one last glance at the handsome boy who had become the most feared and resented man on earth, he followed the psychic out the door, down one last corridor and into a spacious study.

"Well, Harry" Robin smiled and gestured for Harry to sit. "Tell me, what's school like?"

"Fine, I guess…" Harry muttered. Then, realising the Robin was waiting for him to explain, said. "It does get a bit annoying with people staring and whispering but I learnt to control it long ago."

"And your home life? Tell me about that. You live with your aunt and uncle?"

"I did." Harry glanced down at his hands, folded neatly in his lap. "Until my uncle started bashing me. I live with my godfather now."

"How do you feel about people when they mention your parents?"

"Not really bothered. I do get angry if they say something bad, but who wouldn't get mad?"

"Right. Do you have a girlfriend?" Robin gestured at the print on Harry's shirt.

"Yes."

"And how do you feel about her?"

"I love her."

"And Voldemort. I saw you looking at his picture for a while. Does he scare you?"

:"Not as much as Abu Kahim"

"Abu Kahim?"

"Yeah. The Sand Demon."

"Ah. How did you find out about him?"

"I bought him back to life… accidentally, of course" Harry added hurriedly when Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Ok. Do you have any… well not siblings… but other children threatening your home life?"

"Yes. My godfather recently found out he has a daughter. She's sixteen and she just… turned up one day."

"Do you fight with her?"

"Yes."

"Do you hurt her?"

"I try not to but I do use magic on her"

"Well that's all I need to know"

"It is?" Harry was shocked. Robin hadn't even asked about his magical abilities.

"Yes. By finding out about your life style, I can tell what makes you angry,"

"And what is it?"

"Living a normal life."

"Huh?"

"You cant live a normal life. You do need to relax more but when you do get to be normal you become too normal. And when you are suddenly thrust back into the middle of things you become mad and therefore a danger to yourself and those around you. Start using your magic a little more. Have some fun. Cause some trouble. You'll find you feel better."

"Ok" Harry stood up to leave. "Uh… thanks"

"Not a problem"

Dumbledore was waiting for Harry out on the grounds.

"It is time for us to leave." He said after Harry shook Jui's hand.

"It was wonderful of you to visit, Albus" Jui beamed before turning to Harry. "And Harry. We'll be seeing you here again a week before Christmas holidays."

"Great!" Harry smiled.

"Sir?" Harry asked once they were back in the carriage and being pulled through the air.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Why did you go to that school when you were young?"

"Excuse me?"

"I saw your picture. Why were you at that school?"

"Ah" Dumbledore smiled as if he were remembering back all those years ago. "I was an over achiever, Harry. Then one day I achieved something so great that I was shipped off to Oakenshire immediately."

"What did you achieve, sir? If you don't mind me asking…" Harry added hastily. Dumbledore's eyes sparkled mischievously.

"I created immortality"

"_What_?" Harry uttered in disbelief. He knew Voldemort was on his way to immortality but Dumbledore invented it? "Horcruxes?" Harry asked as he tried to digest it. "Was it horcruxes? Or the philosophers stone?"

"No, Harry. It was neither of those. Those are simply branches of immortality."

"So what is it then?"

"You will see soon enough"

Harry turned and stared out the window for a while, trying to figure out ways for Dumbledore to become immortal. Suddenly an image of the ghost knives sprung into his mind and he grinned. Focusing extremely hard on the window frame, he made the movements and said the incantation in his mind. Several hazy looking knives shot out of the air and stuck themselves in the wood.

"Extraordinary!" Dumbledore said. Harry turned to see the headmaster looking extremely surprised. "Where did you learn that, Harry?"

"In charms today" Harry replied, grinning and casting the spell again. Each time he did it, his knives would become more defined and more lifelike.

"You have been able to manage mind spells in one day? I'm extremely impressed." Dumbledore studied Harry as he made the knives again. "It usually takes years to master those kind of spells. And that's only in the most powerful wizards."

"Why don't they teach these kind spells in class?" Harry asked.

"Harry! Think for a moment! If my staff started teaching students the ghost knife charm and such… well you could just imagine the havoc that would cause!"

"I s'pose" Harry blinked and several knives appeared in Dumbledore's beard. The incantation and movements were now etched into his thoughts so deeply that he barely had to think about it.

"Well don't try and do it with all spells. Especially when in a duel. Mind spells are extremely draining and you don't want to be collapsing in the middle of a fight."

The Thesterals made their decent at that moment and less than a minute later Harry was climbing out of the carriage and following Dumbledore back up to the school.

The rest of the school was eating dinner in the great hall and Harry started feeling nervous about going near the other students. Dumbledore pushed him through the doors none the less and Harry soon found himself sitting between Hermione and Claire.

"How'd you go?" Ron asked from across the table. He was sitting next to Lavender and Harry wondered briefly if they were dating again.

"Great." Harry replied, not sure how they knew where he had gone. "I met the seeker of the Chudley Cannons and played against him…"

Ron's jaw dropped. "You played against him? Did you win?"

"I did actually."

"Oh my god!" Ron groaned. Harry decided not to tell them about his new placement on the English team. He would save that for a while and surprise them.

The rest of the weekend went by peacefully. So peacefully that it was almost boring.

Harry was looking forward to a double of defence against the dark arts the next morning. He had only been to about three of the lessons and he wanted to torment Tweed for a while.

He arrived half a minute late to class and managed to seat himself beside Ron before Tweed saw him. When she did she smirked.

"Why have you been missing my lessons, Potter?" she asked in a snotty voice.

"That's my business" Harry replied hotly.

"When your missing _my_ classes it becomes _my_ business!" she sneered. The rest of the class held its breath.

"Fine!" Harry suddenly smiled brightly. "I've been doing some work for Dumbledore. Highly confidential. You'll have to ask him about it."

Tweed glared into his smiling face for a moment before hissing, "ten points from Gryffindor." She then turned to write that day's lesson on the board. Harry continued to smile, his hands folded neatly on the desk. Suddenly several knives appeared in a ring around Tweed's head, their shining silver bladed forced deep into the wall. She looked at them, startled, for a moment before turning furiously to face Harry.

"What kind of dark magic are you playing here, Potter!" she spluttered. Harry bought a look of deep offence to his face.

"Why do you instantly assume it was me? I don't even have my wand out? How could I do it?"

"You- you used your other magic!" she screeched. Harry was quite amused to see her face was turning purple.

"Other magic?" Harry looked around the room innocently. "Did anyone see me use 'other' magic?" he looked over at the Slytherins but none of them seemed to be able to say anything. Harry turned back to Tweed with a smile playing on his lips. "Sorry Professor but I think it might all be in your head. You may have to go see madam Pomfrey…"

"Detention!" she screamed, pointing an accusing finger at him. "Detention for a week! No-body backchats me, Potter! Here…" she scribbled a note furiously and gave it to Harry. "Take that to your head of house! I don't want to see you back here this lesson!"

Harry shrugged, collected his belongings and strolled out of the classroom. It was only a short walk to McGonagall's office and when Harry reached it he was halfway through humming a song.

"What do you want, Potter" McGonagall asked in a harassed voice. She had just finished marking a stack of below-average essays written by third-years and was feeling quite stressed.

"I got kicked out of class"

"Let me guess" She muttered, taking the note from Harry. "Tweed?"

Harry nodded and sat down opposite her desk. McGonagall fell silent as she read the note. Suddenly, to Harry's surprise, she let out a short laugh.

"What?" Harry asked as she tucked the note into her drawer.

"Have you been using your 'other' magic in Tweed's classes, Potter?"

"Only a little bit. It's really advanced. Do you want to see?"

McGonagall nodded slightly and Harry effortlessly filled her hair with ghost knives. She glanced up before whirling around to look in a mirror.

"Mind magic!" she said in an impressed voice. "How long have you been practicing that? Did Albus teach you?"

"No. I learnt it on Saturday when I went to Oakenshire."

"You-you learnt to do that in one day?"

"Yes…"

McGonagall pursed her lips in thought. "Have you ever considered Animagi?"

"Course I have but I thought the ministry banned me from it because… well you know."

"Potter" McGonagall leant across the table and looked him straight in the eye. "When has the ministry ever stopped you from doing something you want to do? And they haven't banned you yet. They're still thinking about it. If you can become an animagus before they put the ban in order then you wont have a problem."

Harry's eyes began to sparkle in delight. "Do you think I could do it, Professor?"

"I think you could ace it. I have a special class starting tomorrow night for anyone over seventeen who is interested. I suggest you come along."

"I will." Harry assured her. She smiled lightly at his enthusiasm.

"Now about your punishment." She tapped her quill on the desk in thought before reaching into a drawer and pulling out several posters. "These are for the class tomorrow night. Just put them up around the school. Don't worry about common rooms, I've already done them."

"Right" Harry collected the posters and got up to leave.

"Oh and Potter?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"I suggest you start thinking about what animal you want to be."

"I will."

For the next hour or so, Harry wandered around the school sticking up posters and thinking about what animal he would like to transform into. He straightaway thought of a stag, like his father, but then he realised that he needed to turn into something that would work to his advantage. Something that would help him out of a tight spot, like a bird or a small dog. Maybe even a snake like Voldemort.

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	9. Silly woman

_Disclaimer: not mine of course._

Chapter 9 

Harry was still wondering about what animal to turn into the next night as he, Hermione, Ron and Claire made their way to the great hall.

"I think I might be a cat." Hermione mused, twirling her wand between her fingers.

"I want to be a greyhound." Ron said. "Could you imagine how fast I could go?"

"What are you going to be, Harry?" Hermione asked as they entered the great hall. It had scattered groups of teenagers all chatting excitedly about the class.

"I don't know yet."

"Claire, what about you?"

"A cat" Claire shrugged. "Something simple"

Malfoy and Zabini came and joined them at that moment.

"-Salamander I reckon." Zabini said, not really noticing the Gryffindor's standing around.

"Nah. Amphibians can only get you so far." Malfoy replied, slipping a casual arm around Hermione. "I'm going for the eagle. What about you, Potter?"

"I don't know" Harry said once again. McGonagall entered the hall and everyone fell quiet.

"Well. Thank you all for arriving on time" she said loudly as more supervising staff filed into the hall. "The first thing you need to know is that becoming an animagus does not happen over night. You need extreme practice before you can even attempt to transform yourself.

'The process will take about six months and only then will the smartest and strongest be able to attempt the transformation." She looked pointedly to where Harry and Hermione were standing. "For the more common or slow learners it could take up to four years. And some of you might never be able to transform at all. All right. The first thing we are going to do is split you into groups of what you would like to be. Amphibians in the far left corner." Blaise shrugged and wandered over to the designated place with several other Slytherins and a few Hufflepuffs and one Gryffindor; Neville. "Domestic animals such as cats and dogs in the far right corner." Ron, Hermione and Claire went to this group along with Lavender and several more Hufflepuffs. "Birds or other flying creatures down on the left of the stage." Malfoy, Theodore Nott, one Hufflepuff and every single Ravenclaw went to this spot. "And wild animals in the right corner." Seamus, Dean, two Slytherin girls and the last Hufflepuff ended up here.

There was a little group left waiting in the centre of the hall including Harry, Parvati, Pansy Parkinson and Crabbe. McGonagall smiled and came down to this group first while other teachers branched off to speak to the separate groups.

"You must be the ones who can't decide. Well we'll fix that. What's your favourite animal?"

"Cat" Pansy said at once.

"Snake" Crabbe muttered.

"Tiger" that was Parvati.

Harry stayed deliberately quiet while McGonagall questioned the other three and sent them off to separate groups. Finally she turned to Harry.

"Well, Potter. Why can't you decide?"

"I need to think of something that will work at my advantage" Harry muttered, a list of animals running frantically through his mind. McGonagall raised an eyebrow and Harry sighed. "I can't just pick any old animal. The rest of the students are doing this for fun but if I'm going to transform then I need to change to something that will help me beat Voldemort."

"Well said." Dumbledore appeared behind Harry. "You have the power to beat him so I suggest you choose something fast. Preferably a land animal."

Harry thought for a moment. What animals were fast? A horse? No, that's too big. Maybe a race dog like Ron? No. Harry wanted something with power. Then it hit him.

"Cheetah"

"Excellent." McGonagall led Harry over to the small group who were listening to an introduction of wild beasts.

When the meeting was finally over Harry went back to the Gryffindor tower with a book on animal transformations tucked under his arm. Hermione was walking beside him babbling excitedly about how she would hopefully be able to transform at the end of six months. Harry secretly reckoned he could do it before then.

For the next two weeks Harry tuckered down and got right into his schoolwork, after have missed about a month of it. In the two Animagi lessons they'd had, Harry and Hermione had shot up to take the lead. Harry had also managed to keep his participation in the English vs. French Quidditch game a complete secret.

It was early on the Saturday morning of the game that Harry woke with butterflies in his stomach. He hadn't felt this nervous about Quidditch since the second grade. He got quietly out of bed and grabbed his broom. Dumbledore had asked him to wait in the entrance hall before the other students woke.

Dumbledore was already waiting for him.

"We'll be apparating today, Harry," he said as they walked swiftly towards the castle gates in the crisp morning air.

"Where about is it?"

"In France. Here" Dumbledore handed Harry a picture of the stadium he would be playing at. Harry nodded and turned sharply on the spot.

Seconds later he was standing in the centre of a massive Quidditch pitch. He could hear voices outside and he and Dumbledore walked towards them.

The English team was standing outside their change rooms signing autographs.

"Harry!" Oliver said, pushing through the crowd towards him.

"Hi, Oliver. When does the game start?"

"In about twenty minutes. We only just got here. Quick, get in the change rooms before they see you."

Harry, Dumbledore and Oliver hurried into the changing rooms. The rest of the team shortly joined them.

"I'll see you after the game, Harry" Dumbledore said as Ruby thrust a pair of red and white Quidditch robes into Harry's hands.

"Right." Jay said nervously, moving his broom from one shoulder to another. "The weathers perfect. Though maybe the sun might be a bit bright. Harry there's nothing to worry about, just play your best."

"I'm not worried" Harry said quietly, sitting down to tie his laces. Overhead they could hear the crowd filling up the stands.

For the next ten minutes Harry sat quietly, listening to the crowd cheering and chanting above. The rest of the team were trying to relax their nerves in their own way.

Suddenly Jay glanced down at his watch and his face became taunt.

"It's time to go," he muttered. The teamed stood, shouldered their brooms and filed out onto the pitch.

The stands erupted. Harry glanced around at them. Half the crowd was dressed in red and white, waving English flags wildly. The other half was wearing red, white and blue.

"And here comes the English team! They've got a new seeker this year… Harry Potter!"

The crowd screamed even louder as the English team stopped in front of the French.

"Make it clean" the referee said sharply as Jay shook hands with French caption. "Mount up!"

Harry got on his broom as the whistle blew and he shot off from the ground and began soaring around the pitch. The French seeker was doing the same in the opposite direction.

Harry watched the game for a moment before he began concentrating so hard on getting the snitch that he didn't even pay attention to the commentary. He soared around and around, looking in every direction for the snitch but at the same time watching the French seeker in case he saw it first.

Then he saw it; hovering a foot from the ground in the centre of the pitch. Without hesitation he dived. The French seeker dived as well and seconds later they're neck in neck, arms out, scrabbling for the snitch.

The game above stopped as both teams turned to watch.

The two seekers were plummeting at an incredible rate towards the hard earth. Then Harry felt it. The snitch was in his hand, beating its tiny wings against his fist. He braked and pulled his broom up to soar back to the sky, hand held high. The French seeker hit the ground with a sickening crunch but Harry didn't notice. All he could think about was the tiny ball in his hand.

The English team, led by Jay, came zooming over and slammed into him in a joyful hug.

"Welcome to the team, Harry!" Jay said. Harry noticed he was crying as he let the commentary back in his ears.

"ENGLAND HAS WON, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY TO ONE HUNDRED AND TEN! POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH ON HIS FIRST GAME! THIS MEANS ENGLAND HAS MADE IT TO THE NEXT ROUND AGAINST POLLAND!"

Harry was signing autographs for an hour before Dumbledore pulled him away so they could go back to school.

"Well done, Harry" Dumbledore said as they walked back to the school. It was almost lunchtime and Harry was still trying to get it around his head that he was now part of an international Quidditch team and they had just won the first game of the season. The next game was scheduled for some time before Christmas.

"Where have you been, Harry?" Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville were sitting by the lake when Harry found them after depositing his broom in the tower.

"With Dumbledore" Harry replied, stretching out on the grass and savouring the last of the warm weather. Winter was fast approaching and the snow was supposed to be heavier than ever.

At the mention of Dumbledore, the four boys looked at Harry curiously.

"Doing what with Dumbledore?" Ron asked in a whisper. Harry shrugged as if it didn't matter.

"Just sorting out a few things about… Abu Kahim. I can't tell you though."

"Oh" was all Ron replied.

"So" Harry started after a comfortable silence "what have you guys been doing?"

"Uh…" Neville, Dean and Seamus sat up and gave Ron a quizzical and humorous look.

"Tell him, Ron" Seamus threatened although he was smiling.

"Tell me what?"

"Well…"

"Spit it out, Ron"

"I'm dating Lavender again."

"Is that all?" Harry lay back with a sigh. He though Ron might have done something dangerous.

"Yeah well… she came up to me this morning and told me she couldn't stop thinking about me and she asked me out again so I said yes."

"And this isn't another one of your jealous attempts to get Hermione and Malfoy to break up?"

"Of course not! I'm well over Hermione. I told you that."

"Just making sure…"

For the next few weeks Harry went around with high spirits. Not just high but soaring. He was part of an international Quidditch team (though for some reason he still wouldn't tell anybody), he was soon to be spending a week at Oakenshire and his Animagi skills were increasing so rapidly that McGonagall was holding him back to avoid suspicion with Tweed whom Harry continued to torment despite her warnings that she would kick him out of class the moment she could prove it was him.

When the morning of Harry's departure to Oakenshire finally arrived Harry found he couldn't sleep a single wink so he rose from his bed only just as the sun was coming up and went to sit in the common room.

Claire, for some odd reason, was sitting near the dead fire, watching the first flicker of snow falling beyond the window.

"Morning" she said quietly as Harry sat beside her.

"What's up?" he asked, stretching an arm across the sofa behind her and waving his hand so a fire sprung to life in the grate. Claire smiled softly as he did this. She always enjoyed watching him use magic.

"Nothing really. I just have a bad feeling about today" she unconsciously rubbed the shoulder where her dark mark was. Harry frowned. The last time Claire had said she had felt uneasy; Harry had been kidnapped by fifty death eaters and dragged into the forest for a weekend with Voldemort. Of course this had been when he'd gotten the cease-fire but it could have gone terribly wrong.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Harry asked after a while. "It might make you feel better."

Claire nodded and they set of for a walk around the lake, hand in hand. Apparently it did make Claire feel better because she was soon chatting happily away about the Christmas break. They were halfway back to the castle when an eerily harsh wind picked up, blowing snow into a vortex around them. Harry had barely blinked before the soft snow turned to sand and dust.

"Fucking hell!" Harry grabbed Claire and pulled her against his body. "Keep your eyes closed! Don't do magic!" he shouted, closing his own eyes as Claire clutched at his billowing robes.

"What is it?" Claire screamed back but before she could answer a sound, very much like a gong, vibrated through the wind and into their ears.

"_Harry Potter_…"

Harry held Claire even tighter as the wind picked up. There was a distant tinkling of glass and someone screamed. Then suddenly the wind was gone. The sand had resumed the form of snow and was now pattering down pleasantly against their bare skin.

"What _was_ that?" Claire gasped, letting go of Harry and looking around them in amazement.

"Abu Kahim. C'mon" he grabbed her hand and together they ran back to the castle.

There were terrified students everywhere. Some were crying, others brandishing wands. But none seemed to be drained of energy. When they saw Harry enter the entrance hall every single soul fell silent. They had all heard Harry's name being called. They had heard him being summoned by the freak sand storm and here he was, standing amongst them, covered in a layer of fresh snow and, strangely enough, sand.

Harry ignored them and left Claire with a few curious Hufflepuff girls before heading off in search of Dumbledore.

The headmaster was on the fourth floor with several other members of the staff including Snape, McGonagall and Tweed.

"Harry!" Dumbledore seemed utterly relieved that he had shown up alive. Harry looked around. The windows closest to them were broken and glass was scattered across the floor. Parvati was slumped against the wall a few feet away, gasping for air.

"Is she the only one?" Harry asked, glancing at the broken windows once more. He felt the urge to fix it but he knew he couldn't use magic while Tweed was around.

"That we know of" Dumbledore replied darkly, clutching Harry by the shoulder and leading him away. "Where were you, Harry? Your covered in snow."

"I was outside with Claire."

"Is she ok?"

"Yes. We didn't use magic."

"Listen, Harry, you still have to go to Oakenshire. You can't stay here because of this."

"I was still planning to go. If you just warn the other students not to use magic when there's a freak sand storm around then they'll be fine."

"Good. I want you to depart for Oakenshire immediately. Go and get your things and meet me in my office"

Harry nodded and, with a last glance at the window, trudged back to the Gryffindor tower to collect his belongings. Fifteen minutes later he had said goodbye to his friends and was walking up the winding staircase with his trunk levitated in front of him and his broom on his shoulder.

"Lets go. I have the feeling Professor Tweed is on her way here and I want you out of the school." Dumbledore pointed at a spot between the fire and a small table where Harry knew he could apparate from. He did so and seconds later he was standing outside the drawbridge that led into Oakenshire. Dumbledore appeared several moments later looking slightly harassed.

"Silly woman" he muttered but said nothing to Harry as he led him into the snowy, fairy-tale like school.

Jui was in his office and he jumped to his feet, grinning when the two entered.

"Your early" he stated, shaking Harry's hand, then Dumbledore's.

"Yes we had a little problem and I thought it best if Harry was as far away as possible." Dumbledore replied.

"I understand."

"I'll have to leave now, though. I have some sick students to attend to." Dumbledore let a wiry smile play across his lips before turning to face Harry.

"Harry, when this week is up I want you to apparate straight to Grimmauld place. I'll tell Sirius to expect you at nine am on the dot."

"Uh sir?" Harry asked as Dumbledore turned to leave. "I was wondering if maybe I could drop by the pit stop first to pick up my car…"

Dumbledore considered this for a moment before nodding curtly and leaving.

"Well young Harry" Jui said, swaying back on his heels and regarding Harry with a cheeky grin. "I think it's best if I show you to your room."

Harry was sharing a room with two other boys. It was a comfortably large room painted in a soft shade of beige with ochre coloured carpet. Harry deposited his broom and trunk on his bed in the corner and followed Jui as he pointed out all the places Harry would need to go during his week there.

"Harry!" Mandy came running up to him as he entered the dining hall for lunch. Her hair was bubblegum pink and she was wearing ripped t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans.

"Hey, Mandy"

"I heard about your game against France. Great game!"

"Thanks"

All of Mandy's friends, except Cyril, had left the school and had been replaced with another girl who called herself Scarlet. Scarlet was a dangerous looking girl with masses of coal black hair falling in shiny waves down her back. Her eyes were just as black and the way she walked and the dangerously seductive tone in her voice reminded Harry of an Egyptian goddess.

"She's an enchantress." Mandy explained later that night as they sat around a fire on the castle grounds with several other people. "She does magic a bit like yours- you know, wandless and all but she isn't as strong so she does this thing where she seduces her prey."

"She's a veela, do you mean?"

"No, a siren. She probably wont harm you but if she does just block your ears. The first time she did it to Cyril he almost walked off a cliff. Right old laugh that was for her…"

"Look at that!" on of the men standing on the other side of the fire pointed to the sky where several meteorites were falling across the velvety sky, leaving blazing trails of fire in their wake.

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